Sub's Alternative Energy Thread

[1972Shocker]

Bigger Batteries in EVs Could Lead to Collossal Boost in Particulate Emissions---From Tires, Study Suggests

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1135856_bigger-batteries-evs-boost-particulate-emissions-from-tires-study

Emissions Analytics now concludes that—in normal driving—tire-wear particulate emissions are 1,850 times greater than tailpipe particulate emissions.

"The fundamental trends that drive this ratio are: tailpipe particulate emissions are much lower on new cars, and tire wear emissions increase with vehicle mass and aggressiveness of driving style," according to Emissions Analytics.

That doesn't bode well for larger EV battery packs, which contribute a significant amount of weight. Half a metric ton of battery weight can cause tire emissions 400 times greater than real-world tailpipe emissions, everything else being equal," Emissions Analytics concluded.

The organization did note that tailpipe emissions are suspended in the air for a time, negatively affecting air quality, while tire emissions tend to go straight to soil and water. Emissions Analytics also concluded that around 11% of the mass of tire emissions is smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter. That's the threshold for airborne particulates that can cause respiratory issues.

Tailpipe emissions are still a major issue—particularly in terms of climate change. But as new cars get more efficient and EVs begin to make up a larger share of the fleet, the environmental impact of tire emissions will have to be addressed. In addition to particulates, a 2021 study found that tires were a significant contributor to microplastic pollution.

[SubGod22]

As the World Runs on Lithium, Researchers Develop Clean Method to Get It From Water

The global market for lithium is huge, but precious little is produced in the United States.

Not only does the patent-pending technology being developed at the Lab in Richland, Washington, provide an opportunity to produce lithium and other critical materials, it does the job much faster and at a lower cost.

At the heart of the process are magnetic nanoparticles surrounded by an adsorbent shell that latches onto the lithium and other metals found in water that is used in various industrial processes. That includes the water in geothermal power plants, known as geothermal brines, or water pulled from the subsurface during oil or gas production.

Lithium is present in much of water pumped during oil and gas extraction across the U.S. and Canada. PNNL scientists estimate that if just 25 percent of the lithium in such water were collected today, it would equal the current annual worldwide production. Testing is ongoing, involving PNNL, Moselle Technologies, Canada Natural Resources Limited, and Conoco Phillips. The team is stress-testing the technology by “subjecting it to extended cycle testing with the magnetic separator system, a needed step for full-scale industrial production,” reports PNNL.

An interesting process that is much less damaging and apparently quicker and more cost effective than current methods of lithium extraction.

[pinstripers]

https://mobile.twitter.com/WashTimesOpEd/status/1529267258857558017

the benefits of fossil fuels

[SubGod22]

European Cities Are Turning Rooftops Into Community and Sustainability Hubs: 'A revolution in urban planning'

Across Europe, intrepid artists, planners, and architects are transforming the flat, grey rooftops of the continent into lively community hubs.

From public parks to art venues to rainwater catchments and solar farms, there’s hardly a bad idea about how to utilize thousands of football fields of under-utilized space.

The European Creative Rooftop Network connects various organizations in European cities like Barcelona and Antwerp that want to ‘aim high’ with cultural hotspots and innovative living labs exploring sustainability.

Rotterdam has 150 million square feet of rooftop space, and the municipality’s program Multifunctional Rooftops is encouraging building owners to green their rooftops to improve water collection, or “yellow” their roofs by installing solar panels on them.

For example, the Luchtpark Hofbogen sits on top of a heritage train station that’s being converted into a meandering rooftop park—much like the High Line in New York City.

I'm no engineer, but I have wondered many times if utilizing rooftops could be of value. They talk about the ability to reduce energy use by utilizing green spaces to help absorb heat that would no longer require building to work as hard to cool spaces. The talk of water collection was mostly around Rotterdam, which is almost entirely below sea level so there's a strong value there.

But could some of these roofs be used to make little parks? Gardens? We could obviously plant solar panels on them which would help those building reduce their energy usage from other means. I think one of the examples in the article talk about one building that has a large telescope on it and that the roof is used for stargazing and astrology events and lectures.

I'm not sure we can be planting massive trees on roofs, but pretty sure some could be used for smaller options that still add to the beautification and serve a purpose when it comes to helping cool buildings and potentially absorb some of the CO2 that people hate so much.

I'm wondering if there are any Wichita rooftops that could be used for something.

[1972Shocker]

[url=https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/european-creative-rooftop-network-designs-public-spaces-for-roofs/]
I'm wondering if there are any Wichita rooftops that could be used for something.

You mean like Carrabba's:



Not sure Carrabba's is still doing this on new locations. I don't think they are.

You might find this website of interest: https://www.greenroofs.com/projects/

[SubGod22]

New way to reduce, reuse and recycle while also helping cars become both stronger and lighter and more efficient.

Electric Cars Could Be Made With Plastic From Clunkers According to New Research

Electric cars could be made with plastic from old clunkers, according to new research.

Bumpers, carpets, mats, seating, seals, and door casings have been turned into graphene, which is the world’s lightest material.

Invented by British scientists almost two decades ago, it is set to revolutionize the automotive industry.

The metal will increase vehicles’ strength while reducing weight, improving fuel efficiency, and creating rust-free paint.

It will make self-driving cars safer with sensors just one atom thick, enabling detection of obstacles even in difficult weather conditions.

The U.S. team collaborated with Ford using a state-of-the-art technique called flash Joule heating.

“Ford sent us 10 pounds of mixed plastic waste from a vehicle shredding facility,” project leader Professor James Tour, of Rice University, Houston, said. “It was muddy and wet. We flashed it, we sent the graphene back to Ford, they put it into new foam composites and it did everything it was supposed to do.

The article also mentions the ability to replace lithium ion batteries. Sounds like a lot of potential with this process into the future.

[SubGod22]

Roads are Lasting Twice as Long Thanks to Recycled Tire Rubber

Rubber from used tyres acts like sunscreen for roads and halves the rate of sun damage when mixed with bitumen, new research has found.

Engineers at RMIT University in Australia have discovered a bitumen blend that is both UV-resistant and withstands traffic loads, with the potential to save governments millions on road maintenance annually.

Unlike much outdoor infrastructure—such as playground equipment and outdoor furniture— roads are not designed with any sun protection, making them prone to cracking and potentially unsafe to drive on.

Incorporating recycled rubber not only offers sun protection but is a promising sustainable solution to the used-tyre crisis in many countries, including Australia where an export ban on used tyres has been in place since December 2020.

While research efforts have focused on improving the durability of roads in terms of traffic load, thermal ageing and weather-related events, sun damage has received little attention, until now.

Sounds like a good way to re-utilize the lord knows how many tires that get discarded every year, and at the same time, prolonging the life of roads before they need any fixing or replacing.

[wufan]

I just want to say how much a appreciate your reminder of all the conservation! There’s so much that can be done that ISN’T a carbon tax or halt in fossil fuels. Great stuff!

[SubGod22]

'Superworm' With Appetite for Polystyrene Could be Key to Mass-Scale Recycling

Science *****!

A ‘superworm’ with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale, according to a new study.

The species is capable of munching through plastic waste thanks to a bacterial enzyme in their gut, say Australian scientists.

Dr Chris Rinke, and his team at the University of Queensland’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, fed superworms different diets over a three-week period, with some given polystyrene foam, some bran, and others put on a fasting diet.

They discovered that the common Zophobas morio ‘superworm’ can eat through polystyrene.

“We found the superworms fed a diet of just polystyrene not only survived, but even had marginal weight gains,” Dr Riske said. “This suggests the worms can derive energy from the polystyrene, most likely with the help of their gut microbes.”
.....
“We can then look into how we can upscale this process to a level required for an entire recycling plant,” PhD candidate Ms Sun said.

Dr Rinke said there are many opportunities for the biodegradation of plastic waste.

“Our team is very excited to push the science to make it happen,” he added.

[SubGod22]

I just want to say how much a appreciate your reminder of all the conservation! There’s so much that can be done that ISN’T a carbon tax or halt in fossil fuels. Great stuff!

I believe in it. I believe in people. I don't believe in government.

[1972Shocker]

'Superworm' With Appetite for Polystyrene Could be Key to Mass-Scale Recycling

Science *****!

As long as the don't morph into graboids.

[SubGod22]

Enzyme Discovered in a Cemetery's Compost Heap Can Break Down PET Plastic in Record Time

PET plastic bottles, food containers, and lightweight wrap for packaging have become a problem if they’re not recycled—but scientists searching through compost piles have discovered an enzyme that degrades the plastic in record time.

The enzyme PHL7, which the German researchers found in a compost heap in Leipzig, could make bio-PET recycling possible much faster than previously thought—and their compelling photos appearing in a scientific journal are an eye-opener.
.....
They added PET, which is the most widely produced plastic, to containers full of an aqueous solution containing either PHL7 or LCC, then measured the amount of plastic that was degraded in a given period of time and compared the values with each other.

The results, published in ChemSusChem, showed that within 16 hours, PHL7 caused the PET to decompose by a whopping 90 percent; in that same time, LCC managed a degradation of just 45 percent. “So our enzyme is twice as active as the gold standard among polyester-cleaving hydrolases,” Sonnendecker said.

For example, PHL7 broke down a plastic clam-shell container (punnet)—the kind used for selling ready-to-eat food in supermarkets—in less than 24 hours. The researchers found that a single building block in the enzyme is responsible for this above-average activity.
.....
Biological PET recycling has some advantages compared to conventional recycling methods, which rely primarily on thermal processes where the plastic waste is melted down at high temperatures. These processes take a lot of energy and the quality of the plastic decreases with each recycling cycle.

Enzymes, on the other hand, only require an aqueous environment and a temperature of 65 to 70 degrees Celsius (140-160 F.) for their work. Another plus is the fact that they break down the PET into its components—terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol— which can then be reused to produce new PET, resulting in a closed cycle. So far, however, biological PET recycling has only been tested by a pilot plant in France by Carbios.
.....
The researchers from Leipzig are looking for industrial partners for using PHL7 to advance biological recycling, convinced that the higher speed will significantly reduce recycling costs. Over the next two to three years, they aim to create a prototype that will make it possible to quantify the economic benefits of their rapid biological recycling process more precisely.

Sounds promising.

[SubGod22]

Solar Covered Skyscraper Will Produce All its Own Energy

An eight-story high-rise office building in Melbourne is going to be covered in over a thousand solar panels with the aim of providing all its own electricity.

Australia, which is already the world’s great renewables powerhouse, and has powered entire states with solar and wind energy for as long as a week, is likely to feature more of these kinds of projects in the future, since solar panel designs are becoming more sophisticated and aesthetically flexible.
.....
“The building is designed to be self-sustainable,” architect Pete Kennon, who led the design, told Fast Company. “We can harness electricity on-site and use it immediately. This is very different to buildings that are offsetting their on-site power with remote solar or wind farms.”

One advantage is the lack of infrastructure needed to bring the energy from the energy farm to the building, saving carbon from construction. Kennon feels solar paneling is the logical next standard-issue step for tower construction. To that end, they’ve ordered 1,182 panels for the façade and roof of the Melbourne tower.

I like to see the experimentation. This is how we learn and adapt. And when it comes to solar, Australia is as good a place as any to be leading the way as they have a lot of potential usage in that area.

I do believe that this is the best kind of usage for solar as I believe I've stated elsewhere. Individual buildings/homes can provide most of what they need, most of the time in the right places.

[SubGod22]

More eco-friendly wind turbines?

More Wind Turbine Towers Being Made of Eco-Friendly Wood

A 330-foot (100-meter) prototype wooden wind turbine is being made in the land of wooden innovation, Sweden, to reduce the substantial carbon footprint of manufacturing a wind turbine from steel.

But how can a structure so battered with wind and gravity be made of a material that can be broken by a human with a machete? The answer is laminated veneer lumber (LVL), a wood construction product that is made by bonding three millimeter sheets of peeled spruce under intense heat and pressure to create flexible timber material stronger than steel, but lighter and less carbon-intensive.
.....
Wood can reduce the CO2 emissions in creating a tower by 90% while also storing carbon dioxide that has been taken up by trees during their growth. Wood selected for transformation into LVL is taken from mature trees that have already absorbed the largest reasonably achievable amount of CO2 they’re able to.

One of the knocks on wind has been the carbon footprint required to construct them. This appears to eliminate much of that and could be a step in the right direction as I'm guessing this would also keep construction costs down and potentially lower how much it costs to collect energy as a whole from wind power.

Again, wind is still limited in what it can do overall, and should never be relied upon as the sole source of energy, but it can help reduce the amount of fossil fuels used at times and that's a positive step.

[SubGod22]

Innovative Italian Invents River Cleaner That Grabs Trash Using Water's Current

They had to check a lot of boxes. The device had to allow for boats to pass without effort, while being able to run 24/7 with no impact on the riverine environment. The result is River Cleaning, a 100% scalable, low cost, low impact solution from a firm called Mold.

Anchored to the bed at the bottom of the river, River Cleaning is a series of buoys that spin on axles powered by the natural flow of the river. Floating in a diagonal line, their gentle spinning funnels incoming trash towards a collection point at the shore.

Passing boats need only go straight through them at a low speed, after which their anchor lines will pull them back into place.

They can be fitted to collect different kinds of waste, such as tiny particles, larger items like plastic bottles, and even oil, and efficacy studies have shown River Cleaning can collect 85% of all waste passing by them.