| Burlingon-IBM turn semiconductor scrap into photovoltaics |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|01:39 pm] |
...first Ben & Jerry's, then Phish, now this!
Here's another cool story out of PhysOrg, about a Vermont IBM team who have pioneered a way to turn semiconductor waste in to solar grade silicon for PV panels (well, actually, that part is not brain science, the new trick was more about erasing IBM's intellectual property before it leaves their hands and ends up on someone's roof). And this is good news, because in the semiconductor world, 250,000 silicon wafers are used a day (and 3.3% of that get scrapped on the factory floor) and so there are about 3 million silicon wafers sitting around waiting to be made useful. They would look nice on my roof :p
...speaking of computers, have you heard the one about OLPC the one laptop per child group has been looking at that run on cow power? No, seriously, and not what you might think, from some cow-poo biofuel or biogas.. but actually hooking the Mumbai cows (for example) up to pulleys and generating electricity from the cows... I dunno, sounds cool, but a little too much like the Professor from Gilligan and not enough like a gizmo from a Brice Stirling book = ( |
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| F R E E A I R E a "cool" nobrainer energysaver! |
[Oct. 25th, 2007|07:30 am] |
Free Commercial Refrigeration From Now Until March!!
[yah it’s a rehash, but then again its getting on that time of year]
Today, in 21+ States and all across Canada there are two things you can be certain of; one, no matter how tasty it looks, do not lick any metal outside! And two, across these 21 states 9 provinces and two territories, there are countless walk-in refrigerators (corner stores, beer stores, restaurants, butcher shops, grocery stores…) and no matter that it’s colder outside than a witches… almost each and every one of these walk-ins is using an insane amount of energy (2-3KwH to ‘frigerate’ the air and keep everything cool & fresh. I say ‘almost’ because there are some—the few, the brave in Vermont, Ontario, Mass, NH and TX(!) who have already gotten hooked up with the BRILLIANT FreeAire. And this one is really a no-brainer.
See, as the tradition goes, walk-in fridges are built inside the buildings, which are heated all winter long. So the temperature inside the walk in has to be cooled down around 21°c. So what Richard Travis invented in Vermont years ago, is a series of ducts and sensors that allow the air conditioning to stop the moment the temperature outside dips below a preset minimum, and instead intakes cool outdoor air. I mean seriously, how much of a no-brainer is this one? Here, let’s look at the AC costs for a small Mom & Pop shop in New England:
…and this is what it costs after installing FreeAire:
And look at that payback! Its not too tough to sell an innovation when it amortizes in 1.5 Years. And if it’s truly 1.5 lbs of CO2 for every KWh we generate, then the little unit illustrated above will save roughly 20 Tons of CO2 from being emitted each year (and imagine just how many walk-ins there are)! This is what some would call a triple win win win (and yes I have mentioned this before and I thought others would have blabbed about it, but I figure its cold outside, the silliness is still going on, and plus I’m stoked that someone in my own hometown is now selling them, woo hoo! |
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| Browns Gas, easy and abundant energy! now on Fox News (?) |
[May. 11th, 2006|04:29 am] |
if even FOX News believes in Browns Gas (finally).....
Yul Brown (1922-1998) invented a gas some call HHO (as opposed to H2O) but most call Browns Gas it comes from a process that makes more hydrogen than regular electrolyzers. It also can be used to weld through metal (but interestingly enough, if it's not cutting through metal, you can touch the flame and not get burnt).
Now, there are just as many people who will tell you its all bunk as who will tell you it works fo shizzle. SO u be the judge. But one thing i can say is that now even Fox News has covered it, and tested it and seem to believe in it. Watch the video news report!
[BrownsGas: believer, non-believer] |
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| the 200 MPG Carburetor rises again!! |
[May. 5th, 2006|05:57 am] |
documents lost for over 50 years resurface!
This is Charles Nelson Pogue. In 1930's he announced the success of his patented carburetor in Winnipeg Manitoba. This invention shook the world back then because it made it easy for any car to get 200 Miles Per Gallon! They never did get manufactured though. In fact Pogue went overnight from impoverished inventor to the manager of a successful factory making oil filters for the motor industry. Ever since, suspicion has lingered that oil companies and car manufacturers colluded to bury Pogue’s invention. But that was decades ago, and now may be about to change...
Patrick Davies, 72, a retired mechanic from St Austell, Cornwall, had owned a dusty tool box for 40 years (someone who had been in Canada gave it to him for painting a house). But only recently, he decided to clean it out. And Inside it, he found the original Pogue work! As well as drawings of the carburettor, the envelope contained two pages of plans, three test reports and six pages of notes written by Pogue. They included a report of a test that Pogue had done on his lawnmower, which showed that he had managed to make the engine run for seven days on a quart (just under a litre) of petrol. The documents also described how the machine worked by turning petrol into a vapour before it entered the cylinder chamber, reducing the amount of fuel needed for combustion. Davies is now working with UK universities to start back up where Pogue left of.... c'mon we could use a little device like this!
[incidentally if you are looking for people who have been bearing the torch for these types of innovations-- vapor in particular-- check out Vapor Systems Technology: the mother of all fuel-vapor sites] |
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| Extenginize your mind, and your sass will follow... |
[May. 4th, 2006|05:35 am] |
Novel new solution to reduce NOx from Biodiesel engines!!
Attention all DIY SVO & biodiesel peeps! ...and for that matter anyone who still uses regular diesel fuel in their diesel car (but why?):
...Sure, you like not-relying on foreign oil. And for you SVO'ers it's that mix of doing something better for the environment, and getting to drive for free. But as we all know, biodiesel still has emissions. There is some carbon monoxide, there's lots of carbon dioxide (which if you grow your hemp oil, or even rapeseed, you will be 'cycling' the carbon), and of course, it's no laughing matter that there are NOx emissions i.e. laughing gas (but in the air its damaging and another greenhouse gas). But now you don't have to!
Fullerton CA's Extengine has just released their ADECII Advanced Diesel Emission Control (they still sell the ADECI which is a little more for the self-starter) and it gets rid of your NOx emissions. It spays an ammonia mist into the exhaust before it leaves your tailpipe, and turns the Nitrous back into Nitrogen and Water Vapor (water vapor is still a greenhouse gas.. one day we'll have to cap that and sell it to the dry cleaners or something....). I like these Extengine people, not only do they have many many other great innovations, but like the company name, they all have these cool names like MaxTRAP (removes 99% of particulates from the exhaust) and many more...
[thanks to linton & Hugg] |
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| don't shoot the messenger |
[Apr. 28th, 2006|05:45 am] |
I know there's a love-in going on right now with every planet conscious person (or planetary-waking anyway) and the C.F.L. And sure, they use less energy than incandescents and are more efficient on a day-to-day basis. But I have a few questions, and only because I see CFLs becoming the panacea that paper recycling was just a few years ago. And it makes me wonder two things 1) has anyone seen a life-cycle analysis for CFLs? I mean how much energy it takes to make one, and of course how much energy is required to treat them once they have burnt out? And 2) has anyone considered what we will do with all that mercury? I mean if there are say, 1.5 Bn tungsten incandescents in North America right now, and we replace 1/2 with CFLs, so in 8 years what are we going to do with 750 Million mercury bulbs? I heard that only 13% of fluorescent bulbs get recycled and out of that something like 4% are CFL. Now surely, in the next few years we will figure out what to do with them. Right? Are we forcing GEcommage to deal with it? Osram Sylvania? What will this look like in a few years??
That's why I like LEDs! |
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| Story du Jour |
[Apr. 21st, 2006|04:16 am] |
microreactors make biodiesel on the fly...
This creditcard-sized microreactor, invented by OSU's Goran Jovanovic, will one day be making biodiesel as easily as milking a cow. In the world of Biodiesel, they have taken portability, speed, and efficiency to a new zenith. Like going from the ENIAC to an AlienWare. And it being EarthDay/Week/Month (really what day of the year isn't Earth day??), and what with Eco-info being the hot info of the moment (hopefully something that can sustain), and everybody* having a love-in with BioDiesel, you can see why this story, which actually broke a week ago in Oregon, has been spreading like wildfire lately.
I *asterixed "everybody loves biodiesel" up there because that's a little over the top, not "everybody loves biodiesel" (and I'm not even talking about Lee "What's for Dessert" Raymond here), we think it's clean. And if we make the biodiesel out of a new crop, like hemp grown on the side of highways, it can cycle it's carbon. But the reality is that BioDiesel emits carbon dioxide just like regular-unleaded, or nonbiodiesel. It also emits Nitrous Oxide (and that's no laughing matter. well it is, it's a gas really, but not when emmitted into the atmosphere). There's other particulates it emits. Its cleaner than DinoDiesel, that's for sure, but panacea? Nyet. I guess in some ways, it's the best that we can get at the moment. I mean you can convert a car to 100% electric and use it as a city car only. But for the open road, unless you wanna be a wayhardcore rebel and DIY maniac (and take your sweet time electrolyzing on the road), this is it.
And in that respect these microreactors are pretty cool. Also cool is the whole concept. Each card only processes a small amount of BioDiesel. But you can stack them so you would have something the size of a PC tower with thousands of them and that way, one can process a substantial amount of veggie-fuel! Dr. Jovanovic says that in the future we will be using these micro reactors for a variety of different purposes, so expect to be seeing a lot more of these gold cards around in the future. The good clean positive evolved future! |
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| Transistor Lasers.... ¿Qué? |
[Apr. 12th, 2006|05:17 am] |
the thing with being a 'generalist'.....
 
OK, I don't love the term, but I guess being a generalist has its benefits (aside form the fact that I can still use world like 'Awesome' and 'WayKewel'). But because of that role, every now and then I come across something I feel may have great implications, but be honest, I have absolutely no Idea what it means... So I am going to out a good friend, my bud ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) somerled, the poet 5ring warrior physicist (from Cambridge!) and ask him to read this and make heads/tails. OK P'man? What does this mean???
"The transistor laser, invented by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been full of surprises. Researchers recently coaxed the device to reveal fundamental properties of the transistor, and of the transistor laser, moving it a step closer to commercialization."
I think it's for computing with light instead of electricity... but have no real clue... P'man-- need some help! Is this some sort of funky hyperspeed LED?? What's going on? |
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| mmmm raw pizzza in the woods! |
[Apr. 8th, 2006|10:04 am] |
Now u too can dehydrate! You say you want to get more into the live/raw deal, but don't have a dehydrator, and/or even tho excaliburs are now starting at $100, you don't have the money?
Or let's say you live in the woods/are going camping, but really really want a rawfood pizza? Well fret no more! The good folks at The Farm have the soilution (yes The Farm, not the farm... but The Farm, a waykewel place if ever there was one): DIY solar dehydrator! It's easy, made of cardboard, and now you gotta do it! |
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| DIY Battery Recharger |
[Apr. 6th, 2006|07:31 pm] |
really keep going and going and going.....
a DIY recharger ...for batteries that aren't supposed to recharge! Yup that's right! Ok, it might only be for serious teach-heads... but the bottom line is that over at IHacked, they just posted a schematic and step-by-step alkaline battery recharger. Nice!
Oh and hey, these other peeps, here, have a way for you to get in, make rechargers and then, they claim, make a "6 Figure Income" recharging peoples NICad and other non-rechargeable alkaline batteries... So now you have no excuse! |
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