Green Building and Manufacturing
Method Makes Refineries More Efficient
ScienceDaily (Dec. 25, 2009) - Refineries could trim millions of dollars in energy costs annually by using a new method developed at Purdue University to rearrange the distillation sequence needed to separate crude petroleum into products.
The researchers have demonstrated their method on petroleum plants that separate crude, showing that 70 of the new sequences they identified could enable oil refineries to improve the energy efficiency of this step anywhere from 6 percent to 48 percent, said Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.
"This is important because improving efficiency by 10 percent at a refinery processing 250,000 barrels per day would save in excess of $12 million a year if oil were priced at $70 a barrel," said Agrawal, who is working with doctoral student Vishesh Shah. "And that's just a single refinery. For the U.S. petroleum industry as a whole, this is a huge potential savings."
Research findings appeared online this month in the AIChE Journal, the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and will be included in a future issue of the magazine.
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What's the average cost to install a solar-electric system to power your home?
This question is one of the most frequently asked in the industry, and also the question that makes most solar installers very uneasy - not because they don't want to give you a forthright answer, but because the correct answer for any individual will depend on a number of variables that dramatically affect the price.
For example, is your home on-grid or off-grid? If it's off grid, you will need additional equipment such as a charge controller, monitors and storage batteries. Next you will need to figure out how much energy your home will use and how much storage (number of batteries) you will need. The size of your system and battery bank will depend on how much sun your location receives (solar insolation) and how many consecutive days overcast conditions may keep your system from producing energy. More than likely, you will want to add a backup engine-generator to your system rather than having to size your battery bank to meet the worst-case scenario. A generator will also help you maintain the health of your battery bank, safeguarding a large part of your investment.
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Glowing walls could kill off the light bulb
Light-emitting wallpaper may begin to replace light bulbs from 2012, according to a government body that supports low-carbon technology.
A chemical coating on the walls will illuminate all parts of the room with an even glow, which mimics sunlight and avoids the shadows and glare of conventional bulbs.
Although an electrical current will be used to stimulate the chemicals to produce light, the voltage will be very low and the walls will be safe to touch. Dimmer switches will control brightness, as with traditional lighting.
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Systems integration the key to green buildings, experts say
To achieve real energy efficiency and higher performance in federal buildings, officials need to integrate all of the systems that control or affect the day-to-day operations of their buildings into the enterprise network for better visibility and for better communications between devices, industry experts say.
Connected buildings will lead to smarter, greener buildings, whether they are older edifices being retrofitted or newly designed buildings, according experts attending the "Designing Government Buildings for the 21st Century" event held in Washington on Dec. 9.
"As of now, buildings are 'dumb,' " said Shannon Sentman, board member of the U.S. Green Building Council, National Capitol Region Chapter. Currently, they exist as concrete and wires with nothing being connected, he said.
"People don't know about energy use until they get their power bill at the end of the month," Sentman said. This is not a viable way to manage energy usage, especially since buildings account for about 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption, experts said.
Moreover, the federal government has mandated a ZeroNet Building Strategy in which the goal of federal building managers is to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2030.
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BIM models being extended to subtrades
While constructing a building information model for a project pays dividends in terms of such items as energy analysis, structural analysis and facilities management, the most important measurement of value is if the model has a positive impact on jobsite activities, says Tom Strong, BIM development manager at EllisDon.
"Therefore, ensuring that the 3D information is incorporated into the supply chain management is critical," Strong said in an interview following a recent presentation at Construct Canada.
Strong, a member of the management team of the Canada BIM Council and an advocate of leveraging 3D technologies in construction, said the new jobsite "etiquette" dictates that the model should govern what is going to happen in the field.
This can be accomplished in two ways, he said. The first is by requiring subtrades to use 3D modeling at the time of tender, building models of the systems they intend to fabricate.
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Small-scale solar plan clashes with big energy
When it comes to renewable power, Californians tend to think big.
Big wind farms sprawl across our hills. Big solar power plants will soon blanket acres of desert. Big new power lines will bring that electricity to our cities.
This, Bill Powers insists, is exactly the wrong approach. He wants us to think small.
Powers, an engineer and energy consultant, argues that California should cover every available rooftop with photovoltaic solar panels, especially commercial buildings. The panels can be installed quickly, unlike large solar power plants that take years to win government permits. They don't require big new power lines. And their price has dropped about 40 percent in the past year.
Powers is involved in a simmering debate over renewable power development in California and the country.
Even though much of the environmental movement has rallied behind the construction of large wind farms and solar power plants, an undercurrent argues that they aren't necessary, or even desirable. Better to get energy from hundreds of smaller facilities close to home than a giant one far away.
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Sustainability: A new model code in motion
St. Patrick's Day will likely be joined by another "green" day this coming spring, though green in a wholly different sense.
A draft of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) is scheduled for release in March 2010, and will be first International Code (I-code) to address sustainable design and green construction practices for all commercial building types. Developed as part of the multi-year "IGCC: Safe and Sustainable by the Book" initiative, the new code is authored by the Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC). This committee is comprised of code officials, sustainability experts and other representatives within the architectural, engineering and construction community, including members of the International Code Council (ICC), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and ASTM International (ASTM).
The rapid drive to develop the new code has come about from a perfect storm of factors. These include the steady push for green products and sustainability, the impetus of ratings systems such as LEED, and the recognition that individual states and jurisdictions would probably soon find a need to start drafting their own sustainability codes.
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Renewable Sources Provide More the 10 Percent of U.S. Energy Production.
According to the most recent issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), renewable energy sources (i.e., biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, wind) provided 10.51% of domestic U.S. energy production during the first nine months of 2009 - the latest time-frame for which data has been published. And according to EIA's latest "Electric Power Monthly," renewable energy sources provided 10.21% of net U.S. electrical generation for the first nine months of 2009.
This continues the steady growth trend for renewable energy. Renewable energy sources accounted for 9.67% of domestic energy production during the first nine months of 2007. That increased to 10.12% for the first three-quarters of 2008.
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Adding Technology to Geometry Class Improves Opportunities to Learn
ScienceDaily (Jan. 5, 2010) - A new study co-written by a University of Illinois expert in math education suggests that incorporating technology in high school-level geometry classes not only makes the teaching of concepts such as congruency easier, it also empowers students to discover other geometric relationships they wouldn't ordinarily uncover when more traditional methods of instruction were used.
Gloriana González, a professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at Illinois, says when students used dynamic geometry software they were more successful in discovering new mathematical ideas than when they used static, paper-based diagrams.
The study, published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, analyzed how students solved geometry problems over four days, with two days spent using static diagrams and the other two with dynamic diagrams drawn using a calculator with dynamic geometry software.
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Demand for upgraded energy efficiency at home is weak
The recession-driven drop in new home construction is forcing more companies to seek work upgrading the energy efficiency of U.S. homes.
But consumer demand remains weak because of the cost and the dearth of strong financial incentives, which President Obama is now pushing Congress to provide.
"The big companies are coming to this area. But it's been difficult to get consumers to dig into their pockets," says Larry Zarker, CEO of the Building Performance Institute trade association.
In December, President Obama declared insulation "sexy" and pressed Congress to provide incentives to homeowners to improve home energy efficiency.
Supporters call the idea "cash for caulkers" because it's similar to the government's "cash for clunkers" rebates that sparked auto sales last summer.
Supporters say incentives, matched by homeowner dollars, would drive energy retrofits, and the U.S. would cut energy use while putting construction workers back to work.
A home retrofit can range from minimal (sealing leaky windows and holes) to the involved (adding insulation or solar water heaters, changing appliances or windows, or redesigning duct work).
Historically, about 150,000 U.S. homes have received energy upgrades annually, most via government programs for low-income Americans, estimates Kevin Pranis, research director for Change to Win, a labor union coalition. Some 100 million U.S. homes could use upgrades, Pranis says.
"We look at this as rescuing an industry," says Matt Golden, co-founder of Recurve, a San Francisco-based energy audit and retrofit firm.
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Car pollution must be cut by half in 15 years: report
The volume of emissions from road traffic must be halved by 2025 if Northern Ireland is to meet its climate change targets, official predictions have revealed.
Further increases will significantly undermine the Executive's ability to meet its overall aims, a report from the Department for Regional Development (DRD) warned.
Pollutants from transport increased significantly since 1990, affecting progress in other areas, the paper added. There has been a notable increase in rural driving and transport for construction materials.
The DRD review said: "While it may be possible to pursue more ambitious reductions in other sectors to address potential shortfalls in transport, the fact remains that further increases in road transport emissions will significantly undermine the potential to successfully realise the Executive's targets and commitments in this area.
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Man-Made Carbon Dioxide Affects Ocean Acoustics
Honolulu, HI – There is little doubt among scientists now that human carbon dioxide emissions are warming the planet. Another problem of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is that CO2 is being absorbed by the oceans, which increases seawater acidity (lowers the seawater pH). This process, termed 'ocean acidification', has received growing scientific and public interest because it threatens certain groups of marine organisms, including corals. Only recently have researchers realized that man-made carbon dioxide not only warms and acidifies the ocean – it also affects acoustical properties of seawater, making it more transparent to low-frequency sound.
Oceanographers Tatiana Ilyina and Richard Zeebe of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, together with Peter Brewer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute write in the journal Nature Geoscience that seawater sound absorption will drop by up to 70% already during this century. The scientists have examined the effects of man-made carbon dioxide under business-as-usual emissions and provide projections of the magnitude, time scale, and regional extent of changes in underwater acoustics resulting from ocean acidification.
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As the Refrigerator Said to the Hi-Fi ...
ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2010) - Networked sensors and devices have huge potential but how can we ensure that they can all talk to each other? The answer, according to a European consortium, is to link them seamlessly through a common 'middleware'.
In these energy conscious times, the old idea of home automation is being revived to give the householder finer control over the many devices in the home. Most proposals envisage devices (embedded systems) -- such as the heating, lighting and ventilation systems -- being able to communicate with each other in a wireless network.
How can different devices, using different technologies and made by different manufacturers at different times, communicate with one another? One way would be to insist that all devices conform to some agreed standard, but that would be complex and time-consuming to negotiate and would not apply to existing devices. It could also stifle innovation by putting constraints on future technologies not yet imagined.
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Cheaper, Stronger Lithium-Ion Batteries for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
A British defense technology company, Qinetiq, is testing a new type of lithium-ion battery for hybrids and electric vehicles that could be substantially cheaper and more powerful than existing batteries.
The battery is based on lithium-ion iron-sulfide chemistry, which has a number of advantages over the chemistry of existing batteries, says Gary Mepsted, technical manager for Qinetiq's power sources group. The new battery would cost half as much as existing vehicle batteries and could last longer and recharge more quickly that other lithium batteries. Mepsted says that compared to standard lithium-ion batteries, the new battery has demonstrated about 1.6 times the energy density (which would extend a plug-in electric's range) and a 50 percent higher power density (which would let hybrids charge and discharge more rapidly).
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A Once-Dark Polaroid Factory Goes Green
Many old factories around the country now sit dark and empty. But at a once-defunct Polaroid film factory in New Bedford, Mass., the lights are on again and a new industry is rising up inside the ruins of an old one.
The company Konarka makes solar panels, but not the kind most people have seen. These are thin, lightweight, flexible plastic sheets, and that enables them to be used in all sorts of new ways.
"We make what's called plastic solar cells; we call it 'power plastic,' " says Rick Hess, Konarka's chief executive officer.
One type of the power plastic is transparent, so it can be built into windows to let homes or office buildings generate their own solar power. The material can also be sewn onto a bag or briefcase - even something that small will generate electricity.
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Sustainability: A new model code in motion
St. Patrick's Day will likely be joined by another "green" day this coming spring, though green in a wholly different sense.
A draft of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) is scheduled for release in March 2010, and will be first International Code (I-code) to address sustainable design and green construction practices for all commercial building types. Developed as part of the multi-year "IGCC: Safe and Sustainable by the Book" initiative, the new code is authored by the Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC). This committee is comprised of code officials, sustainability experts and other representatives within the architectural, engineering and construction community, including members of the International Code Council (ICC), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and ASTM International (ASTM).
The rapid drive to develop the new code has come about from a perfect storm of factors. These include the steady push for green products and sustainability, the impetus of ratings systems such as LEED, and the recognition that individual states and jurisdictions would probably soon find a need to start drafting their own sustainability codes.
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The year climate science caught up with what top scientists have been saying privately for years
In 2009, the scientific literature caught up with what top climate scientists have been saying privately for a few years now:
* Many of the predicted impacts of human-caused climate change are occurring much faster than anybody expected - particularly ice melt, everywhere you look on the planet.
* If we stay anywhere near our current emissions path, we are facing incalculable catastrophes by century's end, including rapid sea level rise, massive wildfires, widespread Dust-Bowlification, large oceanic dead zones, and 9oF warming - much of which could be all but irreversible for centuries. And that's not the worst-case scenario!
* The consequences for human health and well being would be extreme.
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