Sub's Alternative Energy Thread

[pinstripers]

Fun fact: In a single flight Bill Gates' private jet emits more carbon than your car during your entire lifetime.

[SubGod22]

Less about global warming, but still about preserving nature in coastal areas with better technology.

New Shoreline Protection Looks Like Massive Lego Bricks and Doubles as Home for Marine Life

Those aren’t giant Lego bricks out there in the grey waters off the port of Rotterdam, they are part of a new seawall that doubles as a home for marine life.

A kind of artificial oyster reef to help safeguard populations of mussels, fish, crustaceans, and other animals, the bricks are claimed to be the first artificial solution that truly enhances biodiversity, is long-lasting enough to prevent offshore erosion of the seabed from waves, and strong enough to disrupt incoming storms.

In nature, as well as being the beautiful wonderlands that they are, coral reefs can absorb 97% of the energy of a storm surge, preventing both the seafloor from erosion and the terrestrial ecosystem above. Every year, on Malaysia’s Perhentian Islands, rainy season storms are prevented from damaging the islands’ forests and structure by their rich coral reefs.

Battered by the waves, the reefs nearest to the shore break apart and die before being slowly ground up into the soft white sand typical of tropical beaches. The corals regrow, and the cycle continues.

Artificial reefs are not as flexible or beneficial for the environment. They tend to be made as cheaply as possible, either with waste products like old cars, or solid concrete that doesn’t make room for nature.

Wavebreaks and seawalls are much the same. The cement blocks repel the force of a wave but don’t disperse it. Instead, the rebounding wave mixes with the force of the subsequent wave to become even stronger.

The Dutch startup Reefy‘s Lego-like blocks tackle two of these limitations by making holes in the blocks, allowing the wave to expend its energy going through the block rather than bouncing off of it. The holes also allow animals to pass through or make their home inside.

I'm obviously not a coastal person, but this seems pretty cool to me. Sounds like it's an improved artificial reef that could replace current ones that obstruct certain aspects of marine life. And if I'm reading the article correctly, they're designed that so over time, certain aquatic life can grow on and within it to provide even more value to the area than just a storm break to help with coastal erosion.

[SubGod22]

This could be an interesting development as a way to save money on AC usage.

This Iridescent Coating Could Cool Your House Without Air-Conditioning

How can we cool houses without using A/C? Scientists have now discovered that one way would be to turn the roof and walls into a beetle’s shell.

That’s because tiny nanostructures on the beetle’s exoskeleton made of cellulose capture light and send it bouncing around whilst separating it into different wavelengths. This is why they appear to shimmer in greens and purples.

More importantly however, when the same nanostructures are pasted to the outside of a house, they can keep it 7.2°F cooler during the day and 20°F cooler during the night.

Some scientists are worried that too much energy will be used for air-conditioning in a climate that is warmed by 1.5°C, and so are devoting their time to coming up with energy-less ways to cooling homes.

GNN has already reported on ultra-white paint that can keep things cooler, and now scientists at the University of Cambridge are turning to cellulose nanomaterials inspired by nature that would create iridescent houses that are self-cooling.

[rrshock]

Styrofoam has been a long-time issue for many as it takes forever to breakdown. That could be a thing of the past with this. I do know there are ways that can break it down and repurpose it that do exist, but this is another potential option that I could very easily see catching on with a lot of companies to be more environmentally friendly.

Indian Startup Uses Rice Crop Waste to Make Biodegradable Foam Packaging - Instead of Burning it

Diesel seems to do a good job breaking it down...

Not that I'm promoting napalm.

[Shockm]

For most things being shipped, Styrofoam may not be necessary. Good alternatives are a good idea.

[SubGod22]

Styrofoam has been a long-time issue for many as it takes forever to breakdown. That could be a thing of the past with this. I do know there are ways that can break it down and repurpose it that do exist, but this is another potential option that I could very easily see catching on with a lot of companies to be more environmentally friendly.

Indian Startup Uses Rice Crop Waste to Make Biodegradable Foam Packaging - Instead of Burning it

A Delhi-based engineer has designed a replacement for polystyrene packaging out of “rice stubble” the dead stalks left over after the rice season in India, millions of tons of which are burned every year.

They say wisdom oft comes from the mouths of babes, and Mr. Arpit Dhupar was at first left scratching his head when his young nephew drew a picture of the world with a grey sky.

Everything else was normal, green grass, yellow sun, white and brown mountains; why was the sky grey? It dawned on him that his nephew was drawing the sky as he saw it every year when the rice stubble was burned: grey.

“We shouldn’t live in a world where we have to explain to kids that the sky should be painted blue. It should be a given,” he told The Better India.

So he launched a new business venture called Dharaksha Ecosystems in order to tackle the rice stubble problem. Essentially, the farmers need it cleared off their land asap after harvest. Its high moisture content means it’s not useful for stove fuel, so they burn it in massive pyres.

In his factory, he turns 250 metric tons of rice stubble harvested from 100 acres of farmland in Punjab and Haryana into packaging, while paying the farmers a rate of $30 per acre for something they would usually burn.

[SubGod22]

Here's a new and interesting way to potentially utilize clean energy

Newly Discovered Enzyme Turns Air Into Electricity, Promising a New Clean Source of Energy

Imagine being able to draw moisture from the air through your fingertips and create an electrical current as a result—that’s pure comic book superhero stuff right?

Not so, since researchers have been able to use a bacterial enzyme that conducts hydrogen to create electricity, literally out of thin air.

The discovery promises to open up a new field of clean energy that would take on all kinds of sci-fi forms.

Recent work by the team at Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University, Australia, has shown that many bacteria use hydrogen from the atmosphere as an energy source in nutrient-poor environments.

“We’ve known for some time that bacteria can use the trace hydrogen in the air as a source of energy to help them grow and survive, including in Antarctic soils, volcanic craters, and the deep ocean,” said Monash Univ. Professor Chris Greening. “But we didn’t know how they did this, until now.”

In their discovery paper published in Nature, the researchers extracted the enzyme responsible for using atmospheric hydrogen from a bacterium called Mycobacterium smegmatis. They showed that this enzyme, called Huc, turns hydrogen gas into an electrical current.

[WstateU]

[SubGod22]

Much respect to this guy. This is the sort of clean approach I like. Start small. Make a difference where you're at and stop trying to do everything at a massive scale. Things like this is where you can build and grow a movement and make a difference. I've said before that I believe rooftops are a good place to start for a lot of different clean tech ideas.

92-yo Helped His Neighbors Save 200K Liters of Water And Cut Their Electricity Bills by Half

A 92-year-old Mumbai man took action to transform his housing society with renewable energy and rainwater catches, saving the residents thousands.

In the year 2000, Navin Chandra moved into the Sealine Housing Society but was “appalled” to see how much money residents paid for the delivery of water from large tanker trucks.

Expensive and “not even clean” the truck water orders made no sense to Chandra considering that Mumbai lies right in the path of the mighty monsoon rains.

He convinced every member of the housing society to invest in a rainwater harvesting facility, solar panels, a windmill, and a composting pit, all in order to transform the unassuming apartment block into a hub of green civic-mindedness.

Part of Chandra’s pitch was that the residents would recover their investment in a few years thanks to water and electricity savings, and by 2012 the community was in the green, financially speaking, thanks to nearly 200,000 liters of water (2 lakh) gathered up by their rainwater system every monsoon season.

[SubGod22]

Hydrogen powered flight takes a step forward.

First Flight of Regional Jet Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells-40-Seater is Largest Ever to Fly

A fledgling energy company looking to develop true zero-emissions aircraft just took a massive leap forward with the first-ever regional passenger flight powered principally on hydrogen.

A 40-seat aircraft took off at 8:41 am from Grant County International Airport and flew for 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of 3,500 MSL.

The flight, conducted under an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate, was the first in a two-year flight test campaign expected to culminate in 2025 with entry into passenger service of ATR 72 regional aircraft converted to run on hydrogen.

Representatives from an equally-fledgling airline looking to develop a smarter travel experience were there to oversee their own aircraft.

The airline in question, Connect Airlines, just recently signed a purchase agreement with Universal Hydrogen co. for 75 hydrogen powertrains for their passenger jets.

“Today will go down in the history books as the true start to the decarbonization of the global airline industry and we at Connect Airlines are extremely proud of the role that we, as the first US operator, will play in leading the way with Universal Hydrogen,” said John Thomas, CEO of Connect Airlines.

We're beyond theoretical at this point and airworthiness is being pursued. It will be interesting to follow this development over the next two years and see how they come out in the end and how they implement their fleet in the future.

[SubGod22]

Sounds like we should see their batteries used soon in some sort of moped type of bike. But I think I saw something about them working with Porshe for some sort of massive gigafactory for 3D printed batteries. I'm just skimming articles through Google so it's always possible I missed something important lol.

[ShockTalk]

Considering they're working with an aircraft company, I would say vehicles is a potential future area they could be used.

That could be a really a big deal for the United States.

[SubGod22]

Vehicles?? Article really didn't say, did it?

Considering they're working with an aircraft company, I would say vehicles is a potential future area they could be used.

[ShockTalk]

More innovation around batteries.

3D Batteries Printed Using Layers of Powder Use 40% Less Material, Charge in Minutes, Are Easier to Recycle



Pretty cool that the seem to believe that it will be very easy to customize batteries for pretty much anything.

Vehicles?? Article really didn't say, did it?

[SubGod22]

More innovation around batteries.

3D Batteries Printed Using Layers of Powder Use 40% Less Material, Charge in Minutes, Are Easier to Recycle

It seems like a new Silicon Valley startup could change the face of the battery industry forever by utilizing 3D printers to print solid-state batteries.

Solid-state batteries have advantages over lithium-ion because they aren’t flammable, they’re more easily recycled, work in extreme cold, and have greater energy density.

Solid-state batteries have traditionally been difficult to machine manufacture. But by using 3D printing arrays filled with powder, Sakuu systems can make these batteries not only using 40% less material, but in almost any shape the customer might want.

An electric bike could be powered by a battery that hugs a section of the central chassis, or a smartphone’s battery could run all the way around the frame of a circuit board. These unorthodox shapes are just one of the many advantages that Sakuu believe they can offer.

“Many people have built cells in the lab, but they have not been able to scale,” Sakuu CEO and founder Robert Bagheri told Fast Company. “Our vision started with that scalability in mind.”

Pretty cool that the seem to believe that it will be very easy to customize batteries for pretty much anything.