FARM DAMS USED TO FLOAT SOLAR PANELS
Farm dams can be put to work to host floating solar farms that not only create clean, renewable electricity, but also reduce water evaporation.

One of the criticisms of ground-mount solar farms is the amount of space they occupy. In rural areas, this could mean land suitable for agriculture sometimes being used to produce electricity instead of food.

One answer is better utilisation of rooftop real estate through roof mounted solar power systems on farm buildings. Another is to utilise farm dams.

We’ve written about floating solar farms in the past – an Australian company announced a deal in March with India energy giant Tata Power for the construction of floating solar farm in India by the end of this year. Another company, Israel-based Solaris Synergy, is currently developing what it calls the Floating Concentrating Photovoltaic (F-CPV) system.

Another system announced earlier this year was the “Floatovoltaics” concept by SPG solar, the second generation of floating solar farm solutions produced by the company. It not only provides clean electricity, but also reduces water evaporation up to 70% and the shading improves water quality by reducing algae growth. The water below the panels also helps cool the modules, which results in improved power output by around 1% says the company.

Forbes has an article on a winery in California’s Napa Valley that is using SPG’s Floatovoltaics system – and from the air it looks to be quite an impressive sight.

How such systems would stand up to Australian conditions where farm dams often run dry, leaving a boggy mess at the bottom, is not known – however, by reducing evaporation dramatically, perhaps this situation can be avoided in all but the most extreme droughts. SPG’s system also has a number of cables securing the array to the dam sides, which may prevent the racks from ever touching the base of the dam.

According to information from Australia’s National Program for Sustainable Irrigation, as much as 40% of water stored in a farm dam can be lost through evaporation, depending on the depth of the dam and its surface area

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Xiao Lan Wang discusses the company history and launch of the Dow Filmtec HR LE-440i element, which features a high rejection rate but low energy requirements, helping to reduce energy by 33%. This can be used for the removal of boron and nitrates for certain applications such as the electronics industry. Other announcements including improved ultrafiltration membranes as a pre-treatment for RO.
www.dowwaterandprocess.com

Dow Water & Process Solutions
Shanghai,
China

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saves space and reduces costs

August 9, 2007 A new waste water treatment system may soon be available for commercial and governmental use which would reduce the costs associated with treating water, produce higher quality water than currently available systems and significantly reduce the size of land needed to house treatment plants.

This innovative new system was developed by a team of researchers from the University of Grenada in the Caribbean, headed by Professor José Manuel Poyatos Capilla. The team has utilized new technology based on membrane bioreactor systems making it possible to shorten the water clarification process and add an extra clarification stage.

Current water treatment plants comprise of four key stages: pre-treatment, primary decanting, biological reactor and secondary decanting. The team from University of Grenada has included a biological processes section to their concept which could make it possible to separate water from active mud by a membrane filtration process.

The system makes it possible to treat larger quantities of water in a much smaller purifier adding the convenience of space saving in addition to the advanced purification component. Prof Poyatos said “its building would involve a less expensive construction” and installation costs would be reduced.

Being home to rainforests and lush green land, Grenada seems like an unlikely candidate to be responsible for this type of development. The research was in response to the recognition of a global water crisis and addressing the lack of space many municipalities have available for treatment plants. As the population grows, more water will be required for treatment to supply citizens however the increased population will also result in a lack of adequate space.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

combined to purify water

By Ben Coxworth

17:24 January 16, 2011

It has been known for some time now that sunlight can be used to purify drinking water. The practice of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) basically involves just leaving water sitting in direct sunlight, where a combination of heat and UV rays kill off waterborne pathogens – the process is called photocatalysis, and it’s what’s at work behind both the Solaqua water purification device, and a system recently created by students from the University of Washington. Now, researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University have taken things a step further, by combining photocatalysis with microfluidics in a microreactor.

The team from Hong Kong Polytechnic created a planar microfluidic reactor, which consists mainly of a rectangular chamber made up of two facing glass plates, each coated with titanium dioxide (Ti02) – this is the active ingredient in many sunscreens. Tainted water passes between the plates via microchannels, to maximize the surface-to-volume ratio. When exposed to sunlight, the Ti02 releases electrons, which in turn break down contaminants in the water.

“These two technologies have been developed in parallel but there have been few efforts to employ the natural synergy between them,” said study author Xuming Zhang. “Our results showed a dramatic improvement in the efficiency of the photocatalyst.” When compared to a bulk container with the same amount of water, pollutant (methylene blue), and Ti02 surface area – but without the microchannels – they were actually able to improve the photoreaction efficiency by more than 100 times.

While the space between the plates is very small, Zhang intends to increase the reactor’s capacity by scaling the plate size up to two square meters (21.5 square feet), with an ultimate goal of being able to process 1,000 liters (264 US gallons) per hour – the current version has plates that measure just 5 x 1.8 cm (about 2 x 0.7 inches). If the larger version works as well as hoped, he envisions multiple devices being used together in industrial applications. Before that can happen, however, he wants to increase the oxygen availability in the reactor chamber, and boost the light sensitivity of the Ti02.

The research was recently published in the journal Biomicrofluidics.

Images courtesy Xuming Zhang

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goes under the ebay hammer

The Dobbertin HydroCar on a test-launch

The HydroCar’s amphibious capabilities come courtesy of its two articulating sponsons (or pontoons) that run the full length of the vehicle. On land, the sponsons are raised to form the vehicle’s fenders, but when entering water a flip of a switch will lower them almost eight inches (20 cm) to transform the vehicle into a tunnel-hulled watercraft.

Construction

The center body section of the vehicle is covered with a 5086 marine-grade aluminum skin built around a space fame and roll bar constructed from 304 stainless steel, while the frames within the articulating sponsons are constructed from 6061 aluminum. It is powered by a fully dyno-tuned World/Merlin all-aluminum roller-cammed 572 cubic inch Chevrolet engine, which produces 762 hp at 5,800 rpm and 712 lbs of torque at 4,200 rpm.

While the four test-launches the HydroCar has completed have all resulted in improvements, the craft is still short of the 60 mph (96 km/h) Dobbertin says it should be capable of surpassing. However, with Dobbertin citing the cold weather in upstate New York for restricting attempts to carry out another test launch before spring 2011, it seems any further improvements will be the responsibility of the eventual buyer.

Dobbertin has his sealegs

The HydroCar isn’t Dobbertin’s first amphibious car, having built a 32-foot long stainless steel amphibious vehicle known as the Dobbertin Surface Explorer out of an old milk tanker that traveled through 28 countries, logging up 30,000 miles (48,280 km) on land and over 3,000 miles (4,828 km) on the open sea. He also designed and built two hot rods that were awarded Hot Rod magazine’s car of the year.

Dobbertin spent over 18,800 hours over a period of nine years designing and building the HydroCar, but says he is being forced to sell due to a lack of funds resulting from the global financial crisis.

The HydroCar is legally titled as a custom made boat in New York State and is listed on eBay with the Buy It Now price of US$777,000, which includes a custom-built trailer to transport the HydroCar.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Graham Hawkes explains how a Deep Flight sub can ‘fly’ underwater

One thing was very clear at the recent Future of Electric Vehicles conference in San Jose – innovative design and development of electric vehicles is not restricted to the automotive sector. The case-in-point is the Deep Flight Super Falcon submersible. The two-occupant underwater vehicle was designed and manufactured by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, and is one of only two in the world. Like most of the other Hawkes vehicles, the Super Hawk is more like an underwater airplane than a submarine, soaring through the water column instead of rising and sinking. Company founder and Chief Technical Officer Graham Hawkes was a presenter at the conference, and showed us just how his submarine is able to “fly” underwater. Read More

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha www.sciencearticlesonline.com

Atlantis Resources Corporation is one of the world’s leading suppliers of tidal power solutions. Atlantis recently unveiled the world’s largest single axis tidal power turbine at the European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland, United Kingdom. Over 400 additional turbines in negotiation with utilities and governments in the United Kingdom, India and Korea. 49% owned by Morgan Stanley, and Statkraft (State owned Norwegian Utility – Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy) is also a shareholder. Click here to view their feature on the BBC UK

seemingly kooky concepts

Michael Liedtke October 13, 2010 – 10:05AM

In its self-proclaimed drive to make the world a better place, Google has immersed itself in far more than internet search and online ads. But driverless cars and a wind energy farm in the Atlantic Ocean?

It may not always be immediately apparent to frustrated investors – they wish management would be more frugal and focus more on the stock price – but there’s usually some calculated logic underlying Google’s unconventional strategy.

Google’s brain trust – founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt – clearly think differently than most corporate leaders, and may eventually encourage more companies to take risks that might not pay off for years, if ever.

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Google has invested $US1.05 million into this scheme – a form of alternative transportation that places people in plastic tubes so that they can cycle to their destination whilst hung upside down.

The time is ripe for long-term thinking, with memories still fresh of the financial meltdown – a byproduct of Wall Street’s demands for companies to deliver ever-higher profits every three months and meet earnings targets set by analysts.

“Everywhere you look in this country, it seems that we are suffering from the consequences of too much short-term thinking,” said longtime Silicon Valley forecaster Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight for Discern Analytics.

“Google doesn’t have this disease,” he said. “It is one of the few lone bright spots we have in that regard.”

Google’s founders have told investors in the past that the company would be willing to finance projects with just a 10 per cent chance of yielding a return of at least $US1 billion. Photo: Frank Maiorana

Even so, it might be difficult to fathom how Google can justify paying for the development of robotic technology that has driven cars thousands of miles on California roads without a major accident and committing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to help build a wind farm hundreds of miles from the Eastern Seaboard.

With a little imagination, it’s easier to see how Google might benefit. For instance, Saffo surmises that the driverless technology eventually could be implanted into a fleet of vehicles used for car sharing.

Google then could use a camera to take new pictures of streets and highways that appear in its online maps, another example of a service that once seemed like a diversion from its internet search engine but is now an indispensable tool that helps the company sell advertising.

The company announced this week it would buy a 37.5 per cent stake in the Atlantic Ocean wind energy project, investing in a network of deepwater transmission lines to bring power from still-to-be-built offshore wind farms.

That makes more sense when you realise Google already sucks up massive amounts of energy from the power grid and expects to consume even more in the next decade as it opens more datacentres filled with row upon row of computers to run its internet services.

And if the value of renewable energy rises, as many analysts expect, Google eventually could even sell its stake for a tidy profit.

Or it could turn out to be a total bust, something Page and Brin warned potential investors could happen in April 2004 when they laid out their iconoclastic approach to business before Google sold its stock in an initial public offering.

“Our long-term focus may simply be the wrong business strategy,” they warned. “Competitors may be rewarded for short-term tactics and grow stronger as a result. As potential investors, you should consider the risks around our long-term focus.”

The Google founders also told investors that the company would be willing to finance projects with just a 10 per cent chance of yielding a return of at least $US1 billion – bets that seem “very speculative or even strange”.

Google’s transparency about its unorthodox ways may be one reason the company hasn’t been stung yet by an outcry from its shareholders, although most analysts agree the stock price probably would be higher if management were to use some of the company’s $US30 billion in cash to pay a quarterly dividend or buy back shares.

Google stock closed at $US541.39 on Tuesday US time, down 13 per cent for the year and far off its all-time high of nearly $US750 three years ago.

The company’s uninterrupted streak of prosperity since its August 2004 IPO hasn’t hurt, either.

Google can afford to gamble more frequently than most companies because it dominates the internet’s most lucrative market, the ads running alongside search results. And Google has seized on that opportunity in a manner that would make Gordon Gekko proud, beating back its competitors to boost its annual revenue from just $US86 million in 2001 to nearly $US30 billion now.

The company, based in Mountain View, California, began branching out beyond search well before it went public.

It set up an online news section that compiles the day’s top stories in 2002. Just a few months before its August 2004 IPO, Google unveiled a free email service that boasted an unprecedented – and still expanding – amount of space per inbox.

In 2004, it bought an obscure digital mapping service called Keyhole that eventually turned Google into the place to go for directions. Even rival CEOs, such as Yahoo’s Carol Bartz, say it’s the best around.

More recently, Google created a free mobile operating system called Android that now powers millions of smart phones. This month, it’s rolling out technology with Sony that weds traditional television viewing with web surfing.

Google’s expansion into mobile phones and television never seemed like quantum leaps for the company because they are little more than attempts to transplant its advertising model onto other internet-connected screens that attract a lot of eyeballs.

The company also has poured money into building more widely available and faster ways for people to connect to the internet, reasoning that it will make money if more web surfers have the opportunity to use its ubiquitous services.

Schmidt, Google’s CEO, frequently tries to defuse the perception that the company is frivolous. He contends the company’s formula is disciplined: 70 per cent of its resources go to the main search business, 20 per cent to other projects connected to search, and 10 per cent to initiatives that have nothing to do with search.

It’s difficult to argue with the formula so far, said Colin Gillis of the stock market research firm BGC Financial.

“As an analyst, I do hammer them on their [rising] expenses and some of their questionable investments,” he said. “But as a user of all their products, I love them. And from a purely personal perspective, I appreciate that Google is trying to use technology to solve the world’s problems.”

Received & published by Henry Sapiecha

Chicken manure to energy

Environmentally friendly, climate neutral and reliable: For the first time ever on display world wide at VIV Europe will be a gasification system which transforms biomass for example from poultry manure into energy. The clou of the Big Dutchman innovation is that, except for nitrogen, all the components which are important for fertilisation are preserved in the residual ash. Genuine dual use is thus achieved – quite independently of wind and sunshine.

The manure is dried, pressed into pellets and conveyed to a gasifier where it is converted into gas by means of thermochemical conversion. The only by-product which remains is ash – which is a very valuable fertiliser. Subsequently the energy produced in this way is processed in the combined heat and power plant (CHP) to generate electricity and heat. Furthermore, in addition to chicken manure, other by-products such as digestate from biogas plants or sugar cane can also be used for the same purpose.

The result is extremely impressive: The amount of energy produced in a 150 kW gasifier allows to supply thermal energy for 25 households for more than one year (maximum 10 kW heat output) and to provide 200 households one year long with electricity (at an annual average use of 0.75 kW per household).

Hall 12C.050

150 kW gasification system with conveyor belt, switching and control cabinet, gasifier, gas cooling and gas cleaning (from left to right)

Sourced & published  by Henry Sapiecha

To Fuel Cars And Trucks

Science (July 30, 2009) — Call it a “shrimp cocktail” for your fuel tank. Scientists in China are reporting development of a catalyst made from shrimp shells that could transform production of biodiesel fuel into a faster, less expensive, and more environmentally friendly process.

Xinsheng Zheng and colleagues note that an energy-hungry world, concerned about global warming, increasingly puts its future fuel hopes on renewable fuels like biodiesel. Today’s biodiesel production processes, however, require catalysts to speed up the chemical reactions that transform soybean, canola, and other plant oils into diesel fuel. Traditional catalysts cannot be reused and must be neutralized with large amounts of water — another increasingly scarce resource — leaving behind large amounts of polluted wastewater.

The researchers describe development of a new catalyst produced from shrimp shells. In laboratory tests, the shrimp shell catalysts converted canola oil to biodiesel (89 percent conversion in three hours) faster and more efficiently than some conventional catalysts. The new catalysts also can be reused and the process minimizes waste production and pollution, the scientists note.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha