MONTEREY (CALIFORNIA): A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said on Thursday that he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.
Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing “fourth-generation fuel” project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California. [...]
Definition:
Recycling is the third R of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Recycling means taking a product or material at the end of its useful life and turning it into a usable raw material to make another product.
Recycling is the reprocessing of old materials into new products, with the aims of preventing the waste of [...]
Negawatt power is a term coined and introduced by Amory Lovins in a 1989 speech. This technique works by utilising consumption efficiency to increase available market supply rather than by increasing plant generation capacity. This “virtual generation” method can supply growth of supply by increasing efficiencies rather than increasing generation.
It has two main uses:-
1. The [...]
Is your home cold, drafty, or uncomfortable? Do you have high energy bills? Ice dams? Peeling paint? Excessive dust? Addressing these types of home problems can make your home more comfortable, and at the same time improve it’s energy efficiency — saving you money on utility bills and helping to protect the environment too.
High Energy [...]
Ozone has been cast in the roles of both villain and victim in the media of the past decade. Ozone is an everyday part of the atmosphere playing a number of complex roles and is constantly being created and destroyed.
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We should have ozone around as long as we have an atmosphere with abundant oxygen. In [...]
.Natural Gas and Oil Furnace Systems–Have a professional assess your needs and recommend the type and size of system you should purchase. Size is one of the most important factors affecting the efficiency of these systems. Too large a system costs more and operates inefficiently. Bigger is not always better. They have advanced technology [...]
Going green†and “reducing your carbon footprint’ are all the rage, but these trendy concepts are nothing new for the Alliance to Save Energy. That’s because you can’t be green without minimizing your energy use; and energy efficiency has always been and remains the quickest, most cost-effective way to use less energy – and the [...]
A new strategy developed by researchers at Georgia Tech (US) to capture, store and eventually recycle carbon from vehicles, could lead to emission-free cars in the near future.
This new method prevents the harmful pollutant carbon from finding its way from a car tailpipe into the atmosphere.
Though technologies to capture carbon dioxide emissions [...]
Breathing car exhaust fumes can trigger heart disease and increase the risk of strokes, say researchers.
The study found that the chemicals released during the burning of petrol and other fuels weakened the heart’s ability to pump effectively and can lead to irregular heartbeats.
Dr John Incardona, a biologist and toxicologist at the West Coast [...]
Blue energy, osmotic power plant or salinity gradient power is the energy retrieved from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water. Two practical methods for this are Reverse Electrodialysis , or Pressure Retarded Osmosis .
Both processes rely on osmosis with ion specific membranes. The key waste product is brackish water. This [...]
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Introduction
The Visitor Centre at Monarto Zoological Park uses three subsidence towers for cooling the public and administrative spaces. The subsidence towers are 3.6m x 3.6m with an overall height above floor level of 9.4m.
The subsidence towers at Monarto are believed to be the first installed in Australia and will demonstrate an alternative low energy, [...]
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is installing a new woodchip-powered generator, which will be more than 80% efficient when running at full power. In December 2007 Arthur Girling, from CAT, explained the changes:
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The woodchip-powered combined heat and power plant (CHP) will generate up to 100kW of electricity, enough to meet the instantaneous power [...]
Danny Cox recently presented his radio show from a very special house. Sue Roaf’s home is the first low energy house in the UK with a fully integrated photovoltaic roof. This means she gets all her electricity from special solar panels.
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The Oxford Solar House .Danny Cox visits Sue Roaf’s very special home.
The house [...]
A Greek firm has unveiled a hi-tech office block that relies on solar power for heating and cooling.
The project, in a suburb of Athens, seeks to set an example in a country with a poor record in the use of renewable energy.
Co-designer Nikos Manioudakis claims the five-storey block is Europe’s most energy-efficient building.
The mythical [...]
Growing consumer demand for environmentally-friendly cleaning products has moved “green” cleaning supplies from a fringe industry to an economic powerhouse that has attracted the attention of big corporations.
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Suppliers are increasingly providing cleaning products that contain natural or naturally-derived ingredients, while avoiding the use of environmentally-harmful chemicals. Clorox is the latest to offer a line of [...]
A £3m renewable energy system, which will be one of the largest of its type in the UK, is to be built into a controversial Old Town development.
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The Caltongate site is in the Old Town
The Caltongate scheme has been awarded a grant of over £789,000 by the Department of Trade and Industry for a [...]
It is readily volatile in vacuo and can thus be moved about by heating and cooling. Thus polonium can be used as a small (but expensive!) heat source and has been used for in space.
Polonium is named after Poland, the native country of Marie Curie. Marie Curie identified the element with her husband Pierre Curie [...]
Food deteriorates over time, and the rate of deterioration is determined by food acidity, oxidation, and food temperature.
The acidity (The amount of acid in substance, shown by a low pH. Can also means ’sharp or tart to taste’) or pH of a food affects both its taste and the rate at which microorganisms grow [...]
The Stirling engine is an external combustion engine that works on the principle of thermal expansion and contraction of a fluid (technically, the term ‘fluid’ refers to both gases and liquids). It was invented by Rev Robert Stirling, minister of the Church of Scotland, in 1816.
He had noted the death and injury rates caused by [...]
There must be a national effort to bring about a “green revolution”, But what simple things can we all do to save the Earth?
Everyone could help save the planet by making just a few changes in our household energy use.
Intelligent use of heat :
A number of different ideas converge here, but the main inspiration [...]
Due to the variety of building insulation materials available and the various building elements that may require insulation, there are a number of ways of installing building insulation.
Where to insulate:
Where to insulate depends on where your living or conditioned space (the space that you heat and air-condition) ends and where your unconditioned space begins. Treat [...]
Characterizing how air is introduced to, flows through, and is removed from spaces is called room air distribution. HVAC airflow in spaces generally can be classified by two different types: mixing (or dilution) and displacement.
In today’s building industry there is more and more focus on occupant comfort, indoor air quality, ventilation effectiveness, energy use and [...]
Definition:
Underfloor heating is a form of central heating which utilizes heat conduction and radiant heat for indoor climate control, rather than forced air heating which relies on convection. Heat can be provided by circulating heated water or by electric cable, mesh, or film heaters.
Underfloor heating can be used with concrete and wooden floors, with all [...]
While the fossil-fuel era is entering its sunset years, a new energy regime is being born that has the potential to remake civilization along radical new lines. Hydrogen is the most basic and ubiquitous element in the universe. It is the stuff of stars and, when properly harnessed and made from renewable sources, it is [...]
HAMBURG: The refrigerator of the future will run on heat, not costly electricity, according to a team of innovative scientists in Germany.
The research could be a boon in hot countries where fridges and air-conditioning systems are vital, said the group of young scientists, who are working on at the Innovationszentrum Wiesenbusch Gladbeck (IWG), [...]
Definition:
Electrical energy generated by harnessing the power of moving – but not necessarily falling – water is referred to as hydroelectric power.
Hydro electricity is another term for power generated by harnessing the power of moving water. Not necessarily falling water, just moving water. There are many famous such generating stations in the world, not the [...]
A solar cooker is a device which uses only sunlight to cook. Because they use no fuel and they cost nothing to run, humanitarian organizations are promoting their use worldwide to help slow deforestation and desertification, caused by the need for firewood used to cook. Solar cookers are also sometimes used in outdoor cooking, especially [...]
A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy by the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaics is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells as solar energy. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while [...]
Introduction and Definitions :-
Solar combisystems are solar heating installations providing space heating as well as domestic hot water for the inhabitants of the building. The primary energy sources are solar energy as well as an auxiliary source such as biomass, gas, oil and electricity, either direct or with a heat pump. The solar contribution, i.e. [...]