Published on November 7th, 2009
Veteran solar installer Parkson Corporation is lending its expertise to a new wastewater treatment plant upgrade for the town of Berlin near the Maryland coast. When it’s finished, the new plant will almost eliminate the use of fossil fuels for drying and converting biosolids, also known as sludge, into a lightweight Class A soil amendment or sustainable fuel. The process is pushed along by a stainless steel “Electric Mole” that automaticaly mixes, aerates, and granulates the sludge as it dries.
The $16 million upgrade project is funded by ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Parkson’s Thermo-System Active Solar Sludge Drying Chambers will enable the sludge conversion process to operate under more than 90% solar power rather than using gas or oil. For disposing sludge in landfills, that translates into a significant savings in preparation and transportation costs. Even better, it makes sludge products more cost-competitive with conventional soil amendments and fossil fuels, effectively taking the “waste” out of wastewater.
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Published on November 6th, 2009
The U.S. Department of the Interior reports that overall water consumption in the United States has declined in the past 25 years, even though the population has increased 30% and use by individual American households has increased. The statistics were compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey.
What’s the secret? The 25-year patterns of water consumption revealed in the DOI report provide tantalizing clues about the ability of the U.S. to sustain its legendarily consumer-centric lifestyle while stabilizing and ultimately decreasing its contribution to carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses.
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Published on November 3rd, 2009
An ecologist and an engineer at Michigan State University are working together to create robot fish that can better monitor various factors in aquatic environments.
Combining the brilliance of nature with some top-notch engineering, these two scientists are on to something and getting the funding for it.
The researchers are breaking ground with this and looking to raise water monitoring to another level.
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Xiaobo Tan
Published on October 23rd, 2009
Solar water disinfection is an idea so simple, it hurts. Now a Georgia Tech scientist may be on to a new high-tech twist that could make this no-cost, zero emission ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection method even more quick and effective.
Solar disinfection is a proven method of killing germs in drinking water by exposing it to direct sunlight in a clear plastic or glass bottle. Dr. Jaehong Kim of the Georgia Institute of Technology has just been awarded a $100,000 innovation grant by the Water Environment Research Foundation for his work in developing a new coating that could be applied to bottles to shorten the solar disinfection process and improve its effectiveness. Though not (yet) practical for large volumes of water, solar disinfection has proven to be a sustainable answer for people in remote locations or impoverished areas that lack the resources to disinfect their drinking water through other means.
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Published on October 16th, 2009
In an elegant piece of sustainable engineering, the company Renew Blue, Inc. will use wave power to run a desalination plant in Freeport, Texas, then bottle the results in corn-based biodegradable plastic for sale under the Renew Blue brand. The wave power system, called SEADOG, will employ a buoy-and-piston mechanism combined with a water wheel to generate electricity at an offshore platform, enough to power operations at the plant.
Though disposable bottled water is a thorn in the side of sustainability, the reality is that disposable bottles will be with us, at least for some limited uses, far into the foreseeable future. The Renew Blue solution offers a way to provide the convenience with a lower carbon footprint.
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Published on October 7th, 2009
A Woman’s Work…
The Governor’s Global Climate Summit ended with Oxfam America’s inaugural Sisters on the Planet Climate Leader Awards. Thanks to Karen Solomon at Opportunity Green, I was able to attend. The event showcased the work that women all over the world are doing to adapt to climate change. Sisters on the Planet is committed to exposing how livelihoods of the majority of the planet’s women are the most severely impacted by climate change. To quote the brochure:
“But if you remember one thing about Sisters on the Planet, make it this: Climate change is already having a disproportionate impact on poor people in the US and abroad, and it’s hitting women hardest.”
Oxfam is working with women all over the world to develop low-cost adaptation techniques relevant to the regions they’re in. Adapting to global warming requires a range of tactics, from helping families in flood-prone regions elevate their homes, build floating vegetable gardens, and store seeds and other necessities safely to helping farmers in drought-prone areas plant trees, drill wells and improve their irrigation techniques. Oxfam’s publication, Adaptation 101, shows the overall cost of some of these projects, and at what level they need to be carried out- in the community or nationally.
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Published on October 5th, 2009
In its search for more fuel efficient ways to provide drinking water for long sea voyages and remote bases, the U.S. Navy has developed a second-generation desalination unit that use 65% less energy than conventional technology. It’s only in the prototype stage but the Navy is already looking beyond seagoing use, and has deployed an earlier version of the technology to provide emergency water supply to disaster areas.
Called the EUWP (Expeditionary Unit Water Purification Program) Gen 2, the new unit also offers a significant secondary benefit that applies to land operations. By providing an on-site source for potable water, it eliminates the need to run convoys of tanker trucks. The generators that power the EUWP units still use conventional fuel, but that could change. If they could be adapted to run cost-effectively on solar power and other sustainable energy, the door is open to desalination on a mass scale.
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Published on September 29th, 2009
MIT professor Daniel Nocera formed a company earlier this year to commercialize a new technology that can “split water” and store solar energy. The company’s key objective now: achieve a solar energy breakthrough.
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Published on September 28th, 2009
Traditionally, if you are in a water-poor region that has access to desalination technology and seawater, you were in luck. Israeli cleantechnology company ROTEC has developed a reverse osmosis system designed to remove salts from brackish groundwater. In other words, nowhere near the sea.
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Published on September 18th, 2009
Waste uranium can apparently be recovered very cheaply from the polluted runoff from uranium mining using E. Coli and a phosphate storage molecule found in seeds, British researchers have found. They used the common bacteria with a chemical parallel of what is already found in agricultural waste: inositol phosphate.
Inositol phosphate is insoluble, so it forms a precipitate on the bacteria. The E. Coli then broke down the precipitate; releasing the phosphate molecules which then attached to uranium molecules to form uranium phosphate, which can then be harvested to recover the uranium.
What they have developed is a way for one contaminant to clean up another.
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