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Eole water turbine

Issue no. 12, 2012 Published: Apr 20, 2012
Wind turbine farms clean water from desert air
3D printers could create customised drugs on demand
Nanosponge can absorb 100 times its weight in oil
Artificial photosynthesis hits record speed
Algae-powered street lamps suck up C02
Tinted windows go organic, generate electricity
Honda will recycle rare-earth metals from batteries
Bloated website code drains your smartphone's battery
Software reveals what makes a catchy movie line

Wind turbine farms clean water from desert air
As climate change continues to become more apparent, scientists say we are in for lots more hot, very dry weather in some regions of the world and it is essential that new water producing technologies are developed quickly. Plants and animals living in the desert have evolved to utilise even tiny bits of moisture in their quest for survival. The ability to capitalise on natural condensation inspired a French technology startup to develop a wind turbine with similar traits. Eole Water is working on a wind turbine that can produce hundreds of litres of water every day, using nothing but dry desert air. The Eole WMS 1000 wind turbine features a 13-metre diameter rotor with a 12-metric-ton nacelle housing a direct-drive permanent-magnet generator protected by sand-shutters. It starts by drawing wind through air regulators. The moisture in the air is then transformed into steam by heat from the turbine's generator. The steam is then compressed, the moisture condenses, and the resulting water droplets flow down pipes within the turbine and into stainless steel tanks for purification. Tests show that the device is capable of creating 500-800 litres of clean water every day. And that is in the arid climate of the United Arab Emirates where the prototype is being tested. Eole hopes that installing the turbine offshore or near the coast where there are higher humidity and wind conditions could produce even more.
TG Daily Apr 18, 2012	back to top

3D printers could create customised drugs on demand
Scientists at the University of Glasgow are pioneering the use of 3D printers to create drugs and other chemicals. They have used a EUR 1,500 system to create a range of organic compounds and inorganic clusters - some of which are used to create cancer treatments. Longer term, the scientists say the process could be used to make customised medicines. They predict that the technique will be used by pharmaceutical firms within five years, and by the public within 20. The 3D printing process involves the use of a robotically controlled syringe which builds an object out of a gel-based 'ink', into which chemicals and catalysts are mixed. Chemists normally put chemicals in glassware to create a reaction. The Glasgow team is mixing the concept of the glassware and the chemicals together in the 3D printer to create what they call 'reactionware'. Until now the researchers have used bathroom sealant to create their reactor, and the substances created have not been suitable for human consumption. But their next step is to switch ingredients and replicate drugs already available in pharmacies. They also hope to work with engineers to increase the printer's speed and resolution. If successful, they say doctors and individuals could ultimately download pre-set recipes and even tailor medicines to their individual needs.
BBC News / Nature Chemistry journal Apr 18, 2012	back to top

Nanosponge can absorb 100 times its weight in oil
According to researchers at Rice University, a sponge made of pure carbon nanotubes with a dash of boron has been developed that can absorb up to 100 times its weight in oil. And, in part due to its extremely low density, this material has demonstrated a remarkable ability to absorb oil spills from the surface of water. Moreover, the sponge can conduct electricity and be controlled with a magnet. When the sponges are dropped onto the ocean surface to soak up an oily mess, they essentially can be reeled in with giant magnets. After being absorbed, the oil can either be stored in the sponge for later retrieval or burned off, allowing the sponge to be reused. According to the researchers, this porous carbon material is elastic, compressible, flexible, and lightweight. It is also hydrophobic and oleophillic - meaning that it 'hates the water… and loves the oil.'
Scientific American / MSNBC Apr 16, 2012	back to top

Artificial photosynthesis hits record speed
Swedish researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have built a molecular catalyser that can oxidize water to oxygen and protons very quickly - reaching speeds not far off those of natural photosynthesis. While artificial photosynthesis has been under development for 30 years, it is the first time that such a conversion rate has been reached - about 300 turnovers per second, compared with 100 to 400 for natural photosynthesis. The result could make it possible in the future to create large-scale facilities for producing hydrogen in the Sahara, or combine the technique with traditional solar cells, according to the researchers. The team plans to continue working to try and drive down the price of the technology.
TG Daily Apr 16, 2012	back to top

Algae-powered street lamps suck up C02
Algae are a large, diverse group of simple microorganisms that have lived on Earth for billions of years. In the right situations, algae can be very useful to humans, and their potential as an energy source has received lots of attention over the past few years. Like most plants, many varieties of algae are photosynthetic, which means they feed on sunlight and produce oxygen as a byproduct. Some species are also mixotrophic, meaning they are able to derive energy both from photosynthesis and uptake of organic carbon. It is this last characteristic that was of particular interest to French biochemist Pierre Calleja, who has spent several years developing an algae-powered street lamp that feeds on the vast amount of carbon emissions swirling around in our atmosphere. The lamps are really more like massive tanks filled with water and algae. During the day, the algae feed on sunlight and C02 in the air and the resulting energy is stored in batteries connected to the tank. The stored energy is then used to power the lights at night. The lamps can also be illuminated artificially, such as in dark underground parking lots, where the algae go to work absorbing CO2 emissions from the cars.
TG Daily Apr 17, 2012	back to top

Tinted windows go organic, generate electricity
A new type of organic solar panel may soon make cars with tinted windows and thumping stereos a shade greener. The technology is under development by German startup Heliatek and aims to 'be instrumental in establishing environmentally friendly solar energy as a widespread, commonplace technology available to everyone.' To do this, they are rolling out solar panels that are made via a vacuum deposition process that puts small organic molecules on flexible films. Organic solar cells have been around for decades. The idea behind them is that certain organic molecules-typically types of long polymers-could be cheaply printed, leading to very-low-cost solar cells. But such cells have proven inefficient and have had relatively short lifetimes, so they are used only in niche applications. Heliatek's panels are more efficient than the polymer-based ones, and are expected to last as long as a conventional silicon solar cell. The company uses short molecules called oligomers instead of polymers. Oligomers are inherently more stable, and can be deposited using a vacuum-deposition process that allows for precise control over the thickness and uniformity of the resulting films. The organic solar panels convert about 8% of the energy in light into electricity whereas conventional solar panels are in the 14 to 15% efficiency range. But, in cloudy weather or hot environments, which make conventional panels less efficient, the organic ones hold their own.
MSNBC / Technology Review Apr 17, 2012	back to top

Honda will recycle rare-earth metals from batteries
Honda this week made news with its announcement of a recycling breakthrough. The car maker will start recycling rare-earth metals from the nickel-metal hydride batteries of its used hybrid cars on a mass-production basis. Honda says its process move is a world-first - in that its decision does not merely involve a research experiment but rather a process that will be done on a mass production basis at a central recycling plant. The recycling will start very soon; Honda says the work is to begin at the end of this month. The process allows for the recovery of more than 80% of the rare-earth metals used in the nickel-metal hydride batteries. The process involves extractions coming from used batteries from Honda hybrids at Honda dealers inside and outside Japan. China produces about 95% of the world's rare earth supplies. With its monopoly on production, China, noting its concerns about the environment and resources, issued export controls, which sent prices rising. For Honda, the goal was specifically to look to recycling to meet its rare-earth metal needs. Honda says the initiative will not stop at batteries either. It intends to grow out a list of components from which the metals can be recycled.
Phys.Org Apr 19, 2012	back to top

Bloated website code drains your smartphone's battery
Smartphone users know that watching a video or playing a game can quickly drain the battery, and we recently learnt that free apps are also power hungry, but even simple web browsing has an energy cost. Researchers at Stanford University and Deutsche Telekom have discovered that many popular sites, such as Wikipedia, IMDB and even Apple's homepage, are wasting energy due to bloated code. The researchers used an Android phone hooked up to a multimeter to measure the energy used in downloading and rendering 25 popular websites. Simply loading the mobile version of Wikipedia over a 3G connection consumed just over 1% of the phone's battery, while browsing to apple.com, which does not have a mobile version, used 1.4%. The team then repeated the measurements with locally saved versions of the website, allowing them to separate out the energy required to render a page from that need to download it. Most websites use Javascript and CSS files to provide additional functions and styles, but the researchers discovered that many of the websites they looked at were loading large files that weren't being used in the page. For example, Wikipedia uses a custom file Javascript along with a generic library to collapse and expand the various sections on a page, but much of the library goes unused. By rewriting the site's Javascript to just perform the required function, the researchers were able to reduce the energy used from 15 to 9.5 Joules. Making similar changes to the CSS files and images, they were able to reduce the total energy used in loading Wikipedia from 35 to 25 Joules, a saving of 29%.
New Scientist Apr 17, 2012	back to top

Software reveals what makes a catchy movie line
'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.' It's a classic quote from the film Casablanca, but can a computer grasp the magic of such memorable lines? Researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have taught a computer to identify memorable quotes with an accuracy approaching that of humans. It means computers might one day help writers test their latest catchy lines. The team amassed quotes from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which contains a list of lines flagged by users as memorable. The context in which a line is uttered can make a quote more notable, so as a control, the team paired each notable quote with an ordinary one from the same context. It was the same length and spoken by the same character at around the same point in the film. The computer analysed the pairs of quotes - around 2200 in total - for language patterns, unusual words, and word combinations. Unusual words were defined as those that rarely cropped up in text taken from news publications. The computer managed to identify several characteristics peculiar to the memorable quotes, creating a model that could identify them. The analysis also showed that memorable lines often have a property the team dubs 'generality': they can be widely used because they don't contain words that tie them to a specific context. The model was able to distinguish between memorable and non-memorable quotes with 64% accuracy. Humans scored 78%. The team suggests that political campaigners could use the model to assess their slogans.
New Scientist Apr 18, 2012	back to top