Earthship New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine. However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines. The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy. The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent.
Primary Landscapes: An Interview with Edward Burtynsky - Venue "Oil Spill #2," Discoverer Enterprise, Gulf of Mexico, May 11, 2010. Photograph by Edward Burtynsky. Venue's debut last week at the Nevada Museum of Art coincided with the premiere of a new exhibition there: Edward Burtynsky: Oil. This thematic show, on display through September 23, features nearly fifty large-format images that, taken together, tell the story of oil, from its origins, extraction, and processing in the tar sands of Alberta or the first offshore platforms in Azerbaijan, through the spaghetti junctions and motorcycle rallies that represent oil's spatial, infrastructural, and cultural footprint, all the way to oil's afterlife in mountains of compacted barrels and broken tankers in the Bay of Bengal. "Breezewood," Pennsylvania, USA, 2008. Photograph by Edward Burtynsky. "Talladega Speedway #1," Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 2009. I’m curious, though, if you would ever be tempted to pursue your subject to the next step—that is, to a kind of tertiary landscape. Burtynsky: Both.
Earthship South and East view of an Earthship passive solar home Earthship typical floorplan Earthships are primarily designed to work as autonomous buildings using thermal mass construction and natural cross ventilation assisted by thermal draught (Stack effect) to regulate indoor temperature. History[edit] Michael Reynolds' first building, the Thumb House. A building being built of cans in the 1970s The design used with most earthships. Eventually, Reynolds' vision took the form of the common U-shaped earth-filled tire homes seen today. Rammed-earth and tires are easily accessible and allow for owner build structures and use of untrained labour. The earth-rammed tires of an Earthship are usually assembled by teams of two people working together as part of a larger construction team. Additional benefits of the rammed earth tire are its high load-bearing capacity and its resistance to fire. Systems[edit] Water[edit] Collection[edit] A domestic rainwater harvesting system Greywater[edit] Black water[edit]
Scientists Discover Wild Solar Energy Effect, Allows Power Without Cells Up until now scientists thought that only the electrical charge separation effects of photons were strong enough to produce energy from sunlight. (Source: Aether Wave Theory) Researchers have discovered a novel new effect which produces energy when intense light passes through an insulating material like glass, creating a strong magnetic field. (Source: Galucci's Catering) New energy harvesting devices would leverage magnetism effects, rather than electric ones Mankind currently only harvests a minuscule fraction of the estimated 12.2 billion kilowatt-hours of solar energy that hits the Earth every day [source]. That's why a new breakthrough in alternative energy at the University of Michigan is so exciting. No, it's not some novel photosynthesis scheme. I. Light has two components -- magnetism and electricity. But Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics at U of M, was fascinated by this property. II. III.
Pop-Up Forests and Experimental Christmas Trees The New York Times this morning profiles a plant pathologist at Washington State University named Gary Chastagner, who "heads one of the nation’s half-dozen Christmas tree research labs." These labs include institutions such as WSU-Puyallup (producing "research-based information that creates a high-quality Christmas tree product for consumers"), New Mexico State University ("screening provenances of many native and non-native commercial Christmas tree species"), NC State (whose research includes "support on agritourism aspects of Christmas tree farms," as well as a related Christmas Tree Genetics Program), and many more. [Images: Photos by Randy Harris for the New York Times, courtesy of the New York Times]. The goal is to develop new and improved tree species for both indoor and outdoor display during the holiday season, and, along the way, to create a tree that can last weeks—even months—in a post-mortem state without shedding its needles.
Earthship...des maisons pour pas cher! - wikistrike.over-blog.com Earthship...des maisons pour pas cher! Les Earthships (ou Vaisseaux terrestres) sont des habitations inventées par l'architecte américain Mickael Reynolds dans les années 70 avec comme perspective de créer des habitations totalement autonomes à moindre coût. Pour atteindre ses objectifs, Mickael Reynolds s'est basé sur : * la récupération de matériaux (pneus usés, des canettes, des bouteilles en verre, chutes de bois...), * la production d'énergie à l'aide de panneaux solaires, d'éoliennes ou d'autres sources d'énergies renouvelables, * une orientation au sud, * une construction de mur isolante massive, * la récupération et l'épuration des eaux de pluie. Le but ultime des Earthships étant l'auto-suffisance, on peut également trouver des toilettes sèches, et autres installations, afin de recycler les déchets humains pour rendre le raccordement aux égouts inutiles Concept Michael Reynolds commença dans les années 70 à concevoir une habitation durable et peu chère. Construction d'un Earthship
Syngas Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and very often some carbon dioxide. The name comes from its use as intermediates in creating synthetic natural gas (SNG)[1] and for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is used when it is gasified and is turned into electricity. Syngas is also used as an intermediate in producing synthetic petroleum for use as a fuel or lubricant via the Fischer–Tropsch process and previously the Mobil methanol to gasoline process. Production methods include steam reforming of natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen, the gasification of coal,[5] biomass, and in some types of waste-to-energy gasification facilities. Production chemistry[edit] The main reaction that produces syngas, steam reforming, is endothermic with 206 kJ/mol methane needed for conversion. In order to produce more hydrogen from this mixture, more steam is added and the water gas shift reaction is carried out: Other[edit]
Study Finds Renewable Energy is Cheaper than Coal in the US Photo via Shutterstock A new study reveals that wind farms are less costly than new coal-fired plants, and cost about the same, if not less, than new natural gas plants. It sounds pretty extraordinary, but if one looks at the cost of warming and health issues caused by carbon emissions, as well as the hazards caused by sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants, the numbers begin to fall sharply in favor of renewable energy. Photo via Shutterstock The report, authored by Laurie T. Johnson, Chief Economist at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), along with Starla Yeh and Chris Hope, examines the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC). All quite sensible; worldwide, natural disasters are estimated to have cost around $2.5 trillion since 2000, and extreme weather events, worsening as a result of warming, cost the US $140 million last year alone. Estimating at $122 per ton of CO2 with a 1.5% reduction rate (in contrast to the U.S. Via Treehugger
Accueil - La serre du futurLa serre du futur | Ici et maintenant ! Top Five Air Powered Vehicles If the Cash for Clunkers incentive wasn’t enough to curb your unsettled feeling about owning a new gas guzzler, you might want to start saving for one of these truly awesome air-powered eco-rides. Sometimes called PHEV (pneumatic-hybrid electric vehicle), these cars are most typically powered by a compressed air engine combined with an electric motor. The engines are similar to steam engines as they use the expansion of externally supplied pressurized gas to perform work against a piston. Don’t settle on a fuel/electric hybrid or a biofuel burning vehicle before you take a look at our list of top 5 air powered vehicles that will soon be available in the United States. 5. Magnetic Air Car For the sports car lover who also wants a zero-pollution vehicle, take note of San Jose Club Auto Sport, who claims to be developing the first Magnetic Air Car. 4. 3. 2. Unveiled at the 2008 New York Auto Show, the OneCat from MDI has a style that may win over the Mini and Smart Car owners. 1.