Hybrid Living

Along the lines of one laptop per child comes the idea of an inexpensive refrigerator that could help more than a billion people who have no access to electricity. Lack of access to refrigeration is a problem for people in underdeveloped countries; without refrigeration, it’s hard to prevent the spread of food borne disease, and it’s impossible to store vaccines.

Tech venture capitalist Adam Grosser, working with a thermodynamics team from Stanford, may have a solution. The prototype zero-emission fridge doesn’t need gas, propane or kerosene and is powered by regular fire.

The eight pound device looks like a thermos and contains a (nontoxic) refrigerant fluid. It can be heated on a cooking fire – the kind fueled by the likes of wood or camel dung. After being heated on the fire, the device is set aside to cool for an hour. At that point it begins to grow cold, and it is inserted into an insulated container of some sort – a jug, or even a hole in the ground. It gets colder and colder, bringing the temperature of the container to just above freezing, and keeping it that way for about 24 hours.

The low pressure, non-toxic refrigerator is also fairly affordable. At low volumes, Grosser estimates each unit will cost $40. At high volumes, the price for each will drop to $25. Esquire Magazine just named the fridge one of the best and brightest ideas of 2008. Refrigeration for the masses is now closer to reality.

Via Esquire, TED

A man-made strain of the common bacteria E.coli has been created by researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles that could lead to a new generation of biofuels. Researchers report in the current issue of the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they’ve synthesized bacteria that can produce fuel-worthy alcohols.

E. coli is found in animals and humans; a more virulent form can cause food poisoning, but most strains of the bacteria are innocuous. Because its genome is so well documented, it’s easy to work with. Essentially, the bacteria can be thought of as a factory that can be commandeered to produce compounds of interest. Up till now, scientists had managed to coax E. coli to produce ethanol, but the researchers at UCLA wanted a bigger molecule – ethanol is a two carbon molecule that contains less energy than alcohols with longer carbon backbones.

By engineering a new metabolic pathway, the scientists were able to get the bacteria to produce longer alcohols (5 to 8 carbons) which contains higher energy densities and also do not corrode engine interiors. Scientists believe the bacteria could also produce compounds compatible with jet or diesel fuels.

Via: PhysOrg

For anyone who remembers drinking out of triangle paper cups, the idea of a paper water bottle seems, well, kinda flimsy. Brandimage, however, has come up with a design that’s made of 100% renewable paper. The 360 Bottle recently won an IDEA, an International Design Excellence Award.

Each day 60 million plastic bottles are tossed out with only 14% of plastic bottles recycled. The rest end up in the landfill. The 360 paper bottle, Brandimage claims, will decrease energy consumed throughout the product’s entire life cycle. The paper bottles are shipped out in containers made of ecoboard. Before it is used, the paper bottle is flattened out which makes transporting the product more eco-friendly than moving plastic bottles.

For now the paper bottle is just a concept but Brandimage hopes eventually to get the product out to market and fewer plastic bottles tossed in the dump.

Via Ecofriend

The town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet near Barcelona in Spain wants to do its part in fighting global warming. But the densely packed town – 124,000 people crammed into 1.5 square miles – doesn’t have enough land to dedicate tracts exclusively to the wind farms or solar panels that could help ease residents’ dependency on fossil fuel.

So the city council found the space required to install 462 solar panels in an unlikely spot. In the absence of flat expanses of land in the town, local politicians decided to use the local graveyard. The southward facing panels rest on top of the cemetery’s mausoleums, where 57,000 people are buried. The $900,000 project, three years in the making, will reduce 62 tons of CO2 each year and provide enough alternative energy to power 60 homes for a year each.

City councillor Antoni Fogue told the Associated Press that it took a while for residents to warm up to the idea. “Let’s say we heard things like, ‘they’re crazy. Who do they think they are? What a lack of respect!’ “Fogue said in an interview. But residents who were opposed have since learned that the solar panels don’t change the look of the cemetery.

The director of the cemetery said the solar panel installation is compatible with respect for the dead and their families. Generating clean energy, said Esteve Serret, was the “best tribute” the town could pay its ancestors.

Via BBC and the AP

Kokuyo, a Tokyo-based company, wants to improve worker efficiency and cut down on corporate carbon emissions so it has come up with the idea of moving its employees outside. The century-old company which started out manufacturing Japanese-style bookkeeping ledgers in 1905 has set up a rooftop garden office with trees, a man made pond to cool intense summer days and movable solar panels to block direct sunlight on its workers. Electrical outlets and wireless have been installed on the roof.

It’s not the only innovation the company has for its plans to reduce its corporate carbon footprint by 56 tons annually. Kokuyo’s Tokyo headquarters underwent a complete renovation recently and divided up its office space layout so some areas can stay dark when not in use. That knocked power consumption down by 28 per cent. The company has also set up panels on its floors near the entrance to store power when people walk over them.

Having workers outside could lessen the company’s carbon emissions by more than five tons a year. Company president Akihiro Kuroda thinks that the move will not only be good for the environment but also motivate workers. “Workers can work more efficiently in a natural environment,” he says. “I hope it will lead to changes in employees’ mentality.”

The 140 employees are expected to spend one third—or about 90 days a year—of their work time in the garden office. On rainy days, workers can go inside but even in the winter, employees will be encouraged to work in the garden office with blankets to keep them warm.

Via Mainichi and TechOn

A British designer has come up with the Wilting Flower as a way to raise awareness of home energy consumption. The device is shaped like a flower that provides a visible reminder of how much energy is being used at the moment. When low amounts of energy are being consumed, the flower stands tall and blooms open. Flick on more lights and turn on the TV or video game and the flower wilts and closes up.

The prototype is expected to cost about $90 when it comes to the market. So why would someone buy this novelty device when a simple energy monitor would do the exact same thing? Designer Carl Smith, who came up with the Wilting Flower, told the Daily Mail that he hopes people will become attached to the flower and keep it in bloom by changing their energy consumption habits. Other products display energy use on small LCD units which are not as attractive, he says.

A wireless connector is connected to the household electricity supply and when more appliances are turned on, the amount of current drawn increases and is relayed back to the Wilting Flower. When the flower displays a blue and greenish light, that means power usage is low. Purple is a bad sign and an indication that the flower is about to wilt and it’s time to turn off some of those appliances.

Via: Daily Mail

Every elementary school student learns about condensation. Water from the air accumulates on a cold surface, much like a toilet tank sweats in the summer or dew forms on grass overnight. The technology to extract water from air has been around for years – Waterex and Aquamaker both harvest water out of air using dehumidifiers. Now, though a British Columbian company in Kelowna called Element Four has come up with its version: the WaterMill.

The WaterMill attaches to the outside of your house and uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from outdoor air. A sensing device adjusts so output is highest early in the day when humidity is highest. Round like a ball, about a meter wide and with its two air filters that resemble eyes and a carbon filter shaped like a mouth, the machine kind of looks like a smiling robot. Air is drawn in through the filters and cooled with an internal element. The moisture that accumulates is then sterilized using UV light to zap out the bacteria and water is carbon filtered through a pipe.

Each day the WaterMill can produce 12 liters or 13 quarts of water for drinking and cooking. The company claims it will cost about three to four cents to produce one liter of water, a fraction of the price of bottled water. Eventually, the company hopes to power the WaterMill through solar panels or wind energy.

Air may be free, but the WaterMill is a costly appliance. WIRED Store, which opened last week in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, is showcasing the WaterMill as one of its hottest products of the year. It costs $1,299 and will be available next year.

Via The Guardian and the WIRED Store

We don’t often think about how we could make our toilets more efficient. Maybe that’s because we don’t think about our toilets so much in general -= one flush and the problem is gone until the next time we sit and ponder. For some reason, in North America, we haven’t caught on yet to what consumers in water-starved Asia and Australia have known for decades. Why should the water we flush with be as pristine as the water we drink out of the tap?

The people at Caroma have come up with an idea that makes a lot of sense. It has a system that routes the sink water used while washing hands into the toilet tank ready for the next flush. The Profile Smart Dual Flush Toilet has a built in sink behind the cistern which is useful for when space is at a premium, although it may take some adjusting to get used to straddling the seat in order to wash your hands. Apart from the filling mechanism, the toilet operates normally. The water from the sink comes directly from the utilities water supply, completely separating the two functions.

The product was even noted last month as one of the top ten items in Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Products of 2008. Caroma, which has its headquarters in Brisbane, Australia, says it has tested to make sure that soapy water in the tank will have no adverse impact on the toilet components and has calculated water usage savings of 70 per cent per household by combining the sink and toilet.

The system is already available in Australia and the company anticipates selling in North America starting in 2009.

Via Inventor Spot and Popular Mechanics

Fish farms have their proponents and their critics. But whether you’re of the view that they provide an important source of protein or you think that fish farms breed diseases, there is one fact that’s not under dispute: they have to be moved around every so often. That is because conventional fish farms are set up in sheltered waters but have to be moved once disease accumulates. When that happens, the cages are relocated using massive and carbon spewing towboats which haul the cages from one site to its next location.

Off the shores of Puerto Rico, a test project is underway by researchers with MIT. Scientists with the university’s Sea Grant’s Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center are testing a different kind of fish cage: one that can propel itself and not require the use of a massive energy-intensive operation to drag it through the water.

The spherical fish cage, developed by Ocean Farm Technologies, Inc. of Searsmont, Maine, is fully submerged and able to move itself using slow-moving propellers. The 62-foot diameter mesh sphere bobs along in the ocean with electric powered propellers. Initial tests don’t show great results. While the cage maneuvers well, momentum and direction were unpredictable. But the future could show improvement if researchers can successfully outfit these self-propelled fish farms with solar cells or wave motion apparatuses to get them moving without the use of grid electricity

Via: MIT,

A new billboard is going up in the middle of Times Square that will be powered with 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels instead of the usual electricity. When it’s windy and sunny, the billboard will be able to generate enough electricity to light up.

Ricoh Co. of Japan is setting up the 35,000-pound billboard 55 feet above street level on the corner of 7th Avenue and 42nd Street. The technology company, best known for its cameras and printers, estimates that the electricity normally drawn by such a billboard would power six homes annually. The fact that it will come from solar and wind power will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 18 tons every year.

It’s not the first solar-powered billboard in the U.S. Last year, Pacific Gas and Electric set up a billboard in San Francisco powered by 20 PV panels. The Ricoh billboard in Times Square is much bigger, and it is employing a wind technology not seen in its west coast predecessor – vertical, cylindrical turbines. These turbines will serve as the billboard’s main power source; ninety per cent of the billboard’s power will come from them and the rest from the attached solar panels.

The $3-million billboard is scheduled to light up on December 4. Ricoh is depending entirely on renewable energy to light up the sign and has no backup generator in place – if there is no wind or sun, the sign will go dark.

Via: New York Times