Interesting engineering news and general interest to get you through the week. » Latest Engineering News » Environmental and Life CycleEnvironmental and Life Cycle No-one will deny that the environment is an important factor to consider when doing anything these days. Engineers are the ones largely coming up with the solutions.
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Dave Ellery
"It's time we design cities for the human , not for the automobile," said Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a group of planning and building professionals, activists and students committed to making this upstate New York college town the first podcar community in the United States.
"In the podcar . . . it creates the perfect blend between the privacy and autonomy of the automobile with the public transportation aspect and, of course, it uses clean energy," Roberts said.
With the oil crisis reaching a zenith and federal lawmakers ready to begin fashioning a national transportation bill for 2010, Roberts and his colleagues think the future is now for podcars -- electric, automated, lightweight vehicles that ride on their own network separate from other traffic.
Unlike mass transit, podcars carry two to 10 passengers, giving travelers the freedom and privacy of their own car while reducing the use of fossil fuels, lessening traffic congestion and freeing up space now monopolized by parking.
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Sunday 12 October, 2008 08:20 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by George Tan
A UC San Diego engineer has revealed a new mode of propulsion based on how water snails create ripples of slime to crawl upside down beneath the surface.
Eric Lauga, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, recently published a paper in the journal Physics of Fluid called “Crawling Beneath the Free Surface: Water Snail Locomotion,” that explains how and why water snails can drag themselves across a fluid surface that they can’t even grip.
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Friday 10 October, 2008 12:01 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
The DuPont and Smart Fuel Cell AG (SFC) M-25 portable fuel cell has won the U.S. Department of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) USD 1 million Wearable Power Prize in a competition held in Twentynine Palms, Calif. The lightweight M-25 fuel cell combines DuPont’s direct methanol fuel cell technology with SFC’s commercially proven fuel cell systems, products, and integration expertise.
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Thursday 9 October, 2008 04:54 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
Escalating petroleum prices have visited adversity on a world already struggling with the financial hardships and physical threats associated with imported oil. Such heightened concerns add urgency to the related conversation among scientists regarding the effect of industrial CO2 on global warming. As individuals and enterprises refocus their attention on the expedited replacement of hydrocarbon power, governments continue to impose carrot-and-stick systems designed to swing the balance away from fossil fuel and toward other, endorsed means of producing energy.
We of course welcome the scientific enhancement of, and the environmentally conscious use of, traditional fuels. For instance, an abundant domestic resource like coal presents fewer of the challenges posed by imported fuels, and also creates far less pollution per kilowatt hour than in years past. However, discussions in the board room, debates in the legislature, and experiments in the lab now focus more and more on the existing and proposed technologies called alternative energy. That phrase refers to the power acquired from photovoltaic cells, solar-thermal stores, subterranean heat, oceanic-temperature strata, nuclear fission, hydroelectric dams, wind turbines, biomass, and other relatively recent technologies. These modern methods create effluents on a far smaller scale than do fossil fuels, and so we often associate alternative energy with its relatively light environmental footprint.
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Wednesday 8 October, 2008 04:53 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Dave Ellery
Think of it as the end of cars' slacker days: No more sitting idle for hours in parking lots or garages racking up payments, but instead earning their keep by providing power to the electricity grid.
Scientists at the University of Michigan , using a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), are exploring plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) that not only use grid electricity to meet their power needs, but return it to the grid, earning money for the owner.
'Cars sit most of the time,' said Jeff Stein, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. 'What if it could work for you while it sits there? If you could use a car for something more than just getting to work or going on a family vacation, it would be a whole different way to think about a vehicle, and a whole different way to think about the power grid, too.'
The concept, called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) integration, is part of a larger effort to embrace large-scale changes that are needed to improve the sustainability and resilience of the transportation and electric power infrastructures. If V2G integration succeeds, it will enable the grid to utilise PHEV batteries for storing excess renewable energy from wind and the sun, releasing this energy to grid customers when needed, such as during peak hours.
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Wednesday 8 October, 2008 07:49 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
Given that Germany has the highest installed wind capacity in the world at about 23,000MW, it is not surprising to learn that US engineering giant GE Power's main renewables facility is sited in the country.
Located in Salzbergen, close to the border with the Netherlands, and capable of producing 1,600 wind turbines a year, the facility is GE's so-called centre of excellence for wind energy. While GE is obviously proud of the facility and the investment it has put into it, the site has a rather dubious heritage, having been acquired in a bankruptcy sale following the spectacular collapse of power industry pariah Enron in 2002. However, according to GE Power's vice president of renewables, Victor Abate, the company has made significant improvements to the Salzbergen factory and the wider wind business it acquired.
"If you travelled back 10 years and went to California, the first thing you would notice is that two out of three wind turbines were not running," he says. "Reliability was a big challenge and we felt we could bring technologies from our other businesses and improve that over time."
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Wednesday 8 October, 2008 06:22 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Bob Smith
Jackie Young was always good at math and science, but when she started college she never figured she'd end up pursuing a career in nuclear energy.
Then professors at the University of Tennessee's nuclear engineering department briefed her and other undeclared freshmen about what they call a "nuclear renaissance" as the nation prepares to build dozens of new plants in coming years to meet burgeoning energy needs and wean the country off oil.
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Tuesday 7 October, 2008 11:36 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Tony Elmasri
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Hydrogen engine centre inc announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Eliminator Performance Products to produce the largest spark ignited hydrogen V8 engine yet built. It is intended for large hydrogen-fueled electrical power generation systems and for buses. Ted Hollinger, HEC Founder, says, "This 572 cubic inch engine will give us a much needed power source. Hydrogen is very light and it takes a lot of displacement for every kW of power produced. Compacted Graphite Iron will increase the strength and life of the engine by more than five times and thus give very long engine life which is essential for engines running 24/7. This is our first Distributed Generation engine. After years of work I believe that HEC has an engine that can achieve the efficiency and durability that the industry has long been looking for. We are also proud to build this engine in the United States."
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Tuesday 7 October, 2008 10:01 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Barot Casha
Scientists at the University of Michigan, using a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) , are exploring plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) that not only use grid electricity to meet their power needs, but return it to the grid, earning money for the owner.
"Cars sit most of the time," said Jeff Stein, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "What if it could work for you while it sits there? If you could use a car for something more than just getting to work or going on a family vacation, it would be a whole different way to think about a vehicle, and a whole different way to think about the power grid, too."
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Friday 3 October, 2008 11:33 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
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China Energy Recovery, Inc. , a leader in the waste heat energy recovery sector of the alternative energy industry, today announced the completion of another waste heat energy recovery system for Two Lions (Zhangjiagang) Fine Chemical Co., Ltd. (“Two Lions”). The waste heat recovery system is intended for Two Lions' new sulfuric acid facility located in Jiangsu, China which is expected to have an annual output capacity of one million tons and electric power generation of 50 MW utilizing the recovered waste heat energy. The contract value of the system is RMB21.8 million (approximately US $3.2 million on the date of this press release). Two Lions' new plant is expected to come online before the end of 2008.
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Wednesday 1 October, 2008 11:45 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Rose Shah
India's fuel cell project , launched eight years ago, is limping way behind China — and even Taiwan — casting doubts on Indian scientists' credentials to innovate and compete.
‘No immediate plan to raise gas prices
A fuel cell is a device that in-principle operates like a battery, combining hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity without causing pollution.
Crude oil climbs by $25 a barrel
Indian scientists have already spent nearly Rs 36 crore — and have been promised another Rs 35 crore — but a homegrown fuel cell remains elusive despite time and cost overruns.
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Wednesday 1 October, 2008 02:56 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
One of the biggest logistical problems the U.S. Army has to contend with is garbage, according to James Valdes, scientific adviser for biotechnology for the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM). Typically, local contractors are hired to come on base and haul trash away, which causes a security risk and requires military personnel to follow them around to ensure base safety. In some cases, the trash is burned in large incinerators, which use a considerable amount of fuel. Fortunately, a mobile biorefinery unit has been developed that can transform the waste into fuel for stoves and generators and help the U.S. Army get rid of the garbage safely and efficiently
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Tuesday 30 September, 2008 02:52 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Barot Casha
Iceland has long been touted as a hydrogen economy pioneer. So it is quite shocking that electric vehicles -- both plug-in hybrids and pure battery electric cars -- crowded out hydrogen at a recent Reykjavík conference.
Iceland is blessed with abudant hydro-electric opportunities, and currently generates 6.5 TWh (Terawatt hours, which is equal to a million megawatt hours) per year, with the potential of 25-30 TWh per year. Geothermal currently generates 1.3 TWh per year, with a potential of 15 TWh per year over the next 100 years. Almost 100 percent of electricity in Iceland comes from these two sources. Geothermal energy is also used for space heating.
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Tuesday 30 September, 2008 02:23 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Sean
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Emissions from coal-fired power stations are estimated to be 830g of CO2 per kilowatt hour of power generated - compared with 380g for gas and 22g for nuclear power. One plant alone, Drax in West Yorkshire, emits 21m tonnes of a year, making it Britain’s biggest emitter. Nowadays more than half ofCO2 Britain’s coal is imported from Siberia but it remains among the cheapest ways of generating power, so places like Drax will stay in business. What the coal industry is hoping for is that scientists and engineers will find a way of cut. ting out the CO2 The Kingsnorth acquittals pushed such ideas to the top of the political agenda. Last week the Environment Agency intervened in the debate by making clear its belief that coal-fired power stations must not be built unless they can capture and store CO2. It warned that government approval for plants such as that proposed at Kingsnorth could “lock” the UK into high-carbon technologies.
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Sunday 28 September, 2008 05:42 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Adam Crighton
More than 100 years ago, two brothers, Frank and Perry Remy , set up a one-room shop to start their electrical home wiring business in Anderson, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. This small, Midwestern business found a fertile market in this bustling farm community that was just beginning to see the advantages of the electrification that was sweeping the country.
The Remy brothers grew their business by offering services to home owners and farmers who wanted to light and heat their buildings with this new electrical energy source. The little business thrived especially as oil and natural gas deposits were discovered in the area around Madison, Indiana. The region became a center for the development of the petroleum industry in Indiana. All of this economic growth required lighting and electric motors to support the new activities.
Today, the business that the Remy brothers started is on the forefront of environmental activities in the automotive and heavy vehicle market. As one of the largest private companies in Indiana, Remy International employs over 6,000 people around the world. Remy International people design, manufacture, and recycle products that we seldom see but which we use every day.
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Saturday 27 September, 2008 05:20 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan
The state's transportation industry is increasingly turning green, with environmental issues seeping into industries including truck transmissions, biofuel blending and even hybrid-powered rail locomotives.
That was evident by the more than 200 people who attended the first-ever Michigan Clean Transportation Expo & Awards gala Wednesday at Rock Financial Showplace in Novi.
The event, which was sponsored by Ypsilanti-based Clean Energy Coalition, NextEnergy and the Greater Lansing Area Clean Cities Coalition, drew more than 200 attendees and exhibitors from companies and organizations including Cummins Inc., Michigan CAT and the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan.
Keynote speaker John Hertel, the CEO of the Regional Transit Coordinating Council, discussed plans for a scaled-back version of a light rail system linking Detroit's downtown and New Center areas along Woodward Avenue. Such a system could accommodate future rail spurs or other transit connections to serve a wider area and would help attract private investment, he said.
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Saturday 27 September, 2008 03:18 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan
The Ready Mixed Concrete Association of Ontario has launched North America’s first Eco Certified Concrete Facility program.
“We’re moving to green buildings and we want concrete to be seen as a solution to the issues of sustainability and the environment and not as problem,” says RMCAO president John Hull, in explaining the rationale for the program.
Approximately 18 months of work were invested in its creation by the association’s sustainable development and environment committee, which is comprised of owner members and environmental engineers. It was developed in consultation with the Ontario Ministry of Environment.
A major catalyst for the program is the ongoing effort of the American Concrete Institute’s strategic development council to raise industry awareness of sustainable development issues, says Hull.
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Saturday 27 September, 2008 01:17 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Yan Chu
The American Society of Civil Engineers has published a 73-page, special issue of Leadership and Management in Engineering, “Engineering Strategies for Global Climate Change.” In this collection of feature articles, several writers present visions of the future for which the engineering profession needs to further respond and act.
The articles are available online free to the public at http://pubs.asce.org/globalwarming. The feature articles discuss a range of issues that need to be considered in context of global climate change, including:
• Power Generation: An array of 130 wind power turbines located off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., could provide up to 75 percent of that region's electricity needs with zero carbon dioxide emissions, but the project is not without controversy. This project can be seen as a business case study of the trade-offs the United States must face for its energy future.
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Friday 26 September, 2008 04:11 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
InnoCentive, Inc., the global innovation marketplace , today announced the winner of a Challenge posted in November by The ASSET India Foundation seeking the design of a solar-powered wireless router. Zacary Brown of Texas was awarded $20,000 for his design by the Rockefeller Foundation, which sponsored this Challenge.
ASSET (Achieving Sustainable Social Equality through Technology) India Foundation is a non-profit organization that helps train the children of sex workers and girls rescued from trafficking, in technology, so they can escape the sex slave industry in India. ASSET India has successfully established training centers within several major cities within India but sought the development of a solar-powered wireless router through InnoCentive's network to enable them to reach small rural towns with limited electricity or available Internet access. GlobalGiving, a non-profit organization that connects donors with community based projects around the world, made the Rockefeller Foundation aware of ASSET India and worked with them to get the Challenge posted on InnoCentive.
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Friday 26 September, 2008 02:09 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker
New "sea snake" wave plant will carry a price tag of around $13.1M USD and will generate 2.25 MW
With the rush of alternative energy interest, initial enthusiasm has been directed largely towards wind and solar power, while other more exotic forms were left unnoticed. All of that is starting to change though, with alternative alternative energy finally being looked at in depth. Google has taken the lead in exploring non-conventional energy sources, championing geothermal power and tidal power.
And now another piece of major good news for non-mainstream alternative energy. The world's first wave power plant opened this week, off the coast of Portugal. The new plant cost only $13.1M USD to deploy, but will offer a capacity of around 2.25 MW. This already beats current solar offerings, for example its over twice as efficient as the Oregon Road project which is creating 104 kW for $1.3M USD.
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Friday 26 September, 2008 05:00 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
There is no market yet for turbines that turn the tides into a source of energy from deep beneath the sea. But that has not stopped mechanical engineers at the University of Strathclyde's Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) in Scotland from developing one that will ride the tide while latched to the seabed by a cable—like a kite flying on a windy day.
The ESRU team's goal: create a device that literally goes with the flow rather than resting on the sea bottom like an underwater windmill—a model already being developed by a handful of companies. The kite and cable model is designed to facilitate placing tidal turbines in deep water, where the stronger current has the potential for providing greater power but also makes it extremely difficult to plant a turbine in the seabed. "The problem with regular turbines is the bigger they get, the harder they work, and the more likely the force of the water is to damage the turbine," says Andrew Grant, an ESRU mechanical engineer. "Our turbine can fly like a kite in the water." Instead of planting the base of a turbine in the seabed, researchers need only plant an anchor for the tether. Another key difference in ESRU's design is that the turbine has two rotors attached—one in front of the other that turn in opposite directions on a single axis. The rotors' blades are made of either solid aluminum alloy or glass-reinforced plastic, depending on their sizes. By having the rotors turn in opposite directions, Grant and his team are trying to cut down on reactive torque (which pushes the turbine in the opposite direction) so that the unit can be attached to a relatively simple mooring system even in very deep water.
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Friday 26 September, 2008 01:58 AM |
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