Computer Modelling Could Help Boost Urban Wind Power

Researchers from Murdoch University in Western Australia are hoping to use three-dimensional modelling of urban wind flows to improve the design and efficiency of small wind turbines located in the city.
The project will be run by PhD student Amir Tabrizi — a student at  the School of Engineering and Energy under the supervision of Dr Jonathan Whale, Dr Tania Urmee, and Dr Samuel Gyamf — who said the project would look at wind data from open spaces, rural areas, and urban settings to understand the differences of wind shear and turbulence.
Mr Tabrizi said this would help improve the current design standard for small wind turbines.
 

“The current design standard lists design turbulence intensity as 18 per cent across a range of sites, but this result is appropriate for open-site testing only. While it is very early days, our on-site testing has shown turbulence intensity of up to 24 per cent at an urban site in Port Kennedy and 30 per cent at another urban site in Melville,” Mr Tabrizi said.

“A knowledge of turbulence intensity helps predict the load on the machine, so it informs the required design strength of turbine components, including the tower and blades. We need accurate data to ensure turbines are strong enough for all conditions.”
Currently, Mr Tabrizi is working on adapting a two-dimensional model into a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model. The modelling will incorporate the dynamics of various wind environments, taking into account variations by height, prevailing wind directions and the effects of different building shapes.

Already, the simulations have suggested that both rooftop sites and forest sites face turbulence intensity values much greater than those believed to exist in the current design standard.
“Ultimately we want to establish better guidelines for design and installation of urban wind turbines to maximise efficiency and guarantee safety,” Mr Tabrizi said.
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image source : Flickr user maistora

source : Murdoch University

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BioPlastics, New Innovations

When making a list of the most promising innovations, the waste may be set aside to become the first topic that comes to mind, even the object of jokes. one of the companies have found ways to use waste to reduce the environmental impact of human and oil dependency.

Wastewater treatment plants can replace petroleum used each year to make plastic packaging.

You’ve probably never given a lot of thought to what happens to wastewater, but it’s a major environmental issue. Municipal water treatment plants nationwide process more than 150 million gallons of wastewater every day. When the treated water is released into a river or ocean, it leaves behind more than four million tons of sludge, mostly burned or trucked away to landfills. That’s a lot of waste, and it’s expensive, costing as much as $200 million annually.

That’s where Micromidas comes in. They’ve figured out how to convert sludge into a usable product. “Literally, we are brewing plastic,” said John Bissel, Micromidas CEO. “It’s very similar to brewing beer or anything else.” It’s been known for a while that a chemical in wastewater can be used to make plastic, but the challenge has always been extracting and converting it at a competitive price compared to the source of most of America’s plastic – oil.

The breakthrough lies in Micromidas’ proprietary process. The company takes sludge, renders it down to a liquid resembling chicken broth, and applies a cocktail of designer bacteria microbes. The chemical reactions that follow change the liquid’s composition into a thicker product, which is then run through an extruding machine, producing plastic.

If the idea catches on, it could mean big business. Nearly five percent of the oil consumed in America, about 300 million barrels a year, goes into making plastic products like shopping bags and water bottles. Combined with reducing costs for wastewater treatment and the impact of sludge being transported and buried at landfills, plastic from sewage makes sense. “Taking wastewater sludge and turning it into a bioplastic is pretty nice,” said Michael Donahue, Sacramento Water Treatment Plant. “It’s a pretty good idea.”

Even so, there’s still one hurdle to clear – the stigma of plastic from poop. But don’t worry; their product will never become water bottles. “Realistically, we’re looking for tertiary packaging applications,” said Bissel. Tertiary refers to third-level packaging, like the layer of plastic surrounding a DVD player, the rings surrounding packs of bottles, or the wrap that secures products on pallets at big box stores around the country.

Other bioplastics are already on the market, but they're derived from plants and are generally more expensive than oil-based plastic. These products require land, fertilizer, and water. By comparison, Bissel says all his technology requires is a laboratory and ingredients unlikely to run out any time soon.

Micromidas’ product will hit markets next year, so we’ll soon find out if sustainable plastic stinks, or if it can come out smelling like roses.
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Galaxy Tab 10.1

War of tablet PCs increasingly crowded with the introduction of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Android-based Tablet PC will be present in June 2011.

Different from previous tablet device that is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, the latest digital gadget uses a 10.1-inch wide screen. The operating system used by the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and not equipped with telephony features as contained in the first generation Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 into the thinnest tablet PC in the world today. Thickness is only 8.6 mm and weighs 595 grams. Samsung Galaxy Tab 1.10 offers Internet access speeds and work better than other tablet devices. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tegra2 1 Ghz processor uses dual core and two separate wi-fi antenna for sending or receiving data wirelessly. This device is also supported by the 4G technology and HSPA + speed to 21 Mbps.

Samsung Electronics still keep the official price of the latest products. To be sure, this device will be sold with free internet broadband service plans
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Power from Two Energy Sources

Alternative sources of energy are clean and green but the catch is they generate less energy compared to fossil fuels. So now the scientists are trying to use different sources of alternative energy at the same place and same time to generate power. Attempts are being made to combine two forms of external energy sources such as light and heat or light and vibration to generate external energy so that enough energy can be collected for practical use. Fujitsu Laboratories have now succeeded in using hybrid energy sources to generate power. Fujitsu Laboratories wants to provide this technology for commercial use by the year 2015.

Fujitsu Laboratories: Making power from two sources of energy
Fujitsu Laboratories are working extensively in this regard, and to generate electricity both from heat and light, they are creating a new hybrid energy harvesting device. Energy harvesting is the procedure used in accumulating energy from the environment. Later on that energy is transformed into electricity. Fujitsu is not doing something innovative. Work in this field was done by scientists earlier too. But hybrid energy could only be generated by combining separate devices and that proved costly so it was commercially unviable.

Reducing the cost
Now Fujitsu laboratories confirm that two separate devices are not needed to generate electricity from a hybrid source. How were they successful in reducing costs? They used organic materials for creating hybrid device. This lowers the cost, and the new technology is showing promise to convert energy from the environment to electricity. The device from Fujitsu Laboratories is just a one-piece device that catches energy from the most common form of energy available for large scale use.

The use of organic material
An organic material of high efficiency that can generate power from both photovoltaic and thermoelectric mode has been developed by Fujitsu Laboratories. This organic material can make power both from heat in thermoelectric mode and indoor lighting in photovoltaic mode. The production cost is very low because of the organic materials and the processing costs are very low. The device can be made to work as a thermoelectric generator or photovoltaic cell by changing the electrical circuit connecting P-type and N-type semiconductors.

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Chevrolet Volt Be The Best American Cars

Electric cars made by General Motors, Chevrolet Volt won the 2011 Nort American Car of the Year. While Ford Explorer won Truck of the Year.

Both of the awards by the two cars provided by the journalists of the North American region in the mat North America International Auto Show (NAIAS) 2011. "The 49 journalists from the United States and Canada are involved in choosing the best car that was held every year," said the Associated Press.

In celebration of this year, in addition to the Chevrolet Volt, a car entered in the nomination list is the Hyundai Sonata and Nissan Leaf. As for the category or pickup truck, other than the Ford Explorer, there Durange Dodge and Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Some aspects that are judged by a jury, both design and technological innovation, safety and security aspects of the car, comfort control (handling), satisfaction drivers, and the value of the car. Aspects of the value in question is whether the price set commensurate with all the comforts obtained.
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