11 Clean Tech Innovations That Can Change The World
The clean technology boom seems to spread exponentially every year. These new eco-friendly inventions compete with, and sometimes surpass, their conventional counterparts.
1. Nanotube power
Researchers at MIT have recently developed an energy technology that produces DC voltage by slingshotting electrons through a carbon nanotube. The discovery is so monumental that an entire branch of science and engineering may need to be created just to deal with the new form of energy production. In more practical terms, a thermpower device made of carbon nanotubes could provide the same energy output as a lithium-ion battery but at 1/100th the size. Imagine your laptop being powered by something the size of your fingernail!
Copyright: arcticle: mother nature network
Original article from: http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/photos/11-clean-tech-innovations-that-can-change-the-world/imaginati
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The clean technology boom seems to spread exponentially every year. These new eco-friendly inventions compete with, and sometimes surpass, their conventional counterparts.
1. Nanotube power
Researchers at MIT have recently developed an energy technology that produces DC voltage by slingshotting electrons through a carbon nanotube. The discovery is so monumental that an entire branch of science and engineering may need to be created just to deal with the new form of energy production. In more practical terms, a thermpower device made of carbon nanotubes could provide the same energy output as a lithium-ion battery but at 1/100th the size. Imagine your laptop being powered by something the size of your fingernail!
2. ZenithSolar technology
By using curved mirrors that can collect five times more energy than ordinary solar collectors, new technology developed by Israeli company ZenithSolar is making solar powercost competitive against fossil fuels for the first time. The incredible technological advance can improve overall solar power conversion efficiency up to 75 percent. In fact, if Zenith's curved solar panels were placed on just 12 square kilometers of land, 10 percent of Israel’s population could live on the energy.
3. Vertical farming
As we pave over farmland and use it for other purposes, farmers today must produce more food with less land. The answer to the problem, according to a company called Valcent, is to build our croplands like skyscrapers: straight up. Valcent has pioneered a hydroponic farming systemthat grows plants in rotating rows, one on top of another. Not only does the rotation allow for the precise amount of light to hit each of the plants, it also uses far less water than conventional farming methods.
4. Mercury-free, energy-efficient lighting
RTI International researchers have inventedbreakthrough lighting technology that is five times more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs and does not contain mercury, making it more eco-friendly than CFLs. Best yet, the lighting gives off a warmer, more aesthetic light than CFLs. Once the bulbs hit the market, consumers will have no good excuse left to use traditional incandescents.
5. Solar shingles
There wouldn't be the need to use open spaces to build solar farms if everyone placed solar panels on their roofs. Now, thanks to technology developed by Dow Chemical Co., that possibility is closer to reality. Dow has developed a roof shingle that doubles as a solar panel, made of thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide. Since they can be installed by roofing contractors with no specialized solar panel skills, the cost of using your roof as a power plant has never been cheaper.
6. Sage Electrochromics
Sage Electrochromics is a green tech company that aims to develop smart windows based on electrochromism — glass that can change its tint when an electric charge is applied. Better yet, the degree of tint can be changed manually with the flick of a switch, much like a dimming switch can be used for home lighting. The technology can practically pay for itself by helping to regulate home heating and by saving on energy costs.
7. Electric geobacter microbes
Scientists have engineered an amazing strain of microbe — a proteobacteria called a geobacter — that can generate electricity from oil-based pollutants and radioactive material. In other words, not only can the geobacter be used to clean up harmful pollutants, it can actually turn those pollutants into clean energy. Researchers are currently working to create geobacter-based fuel cells. Not bad for a microorganism.
8. Spray-on solar panels
New Energy Technologies has developedtransparent solar cells which can be sprayed onto any glass surface like paint. Light-absorbing nanomaterials that are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair make this unfathomable technology possible, and since they are transparent, they can be applied to almost any surface. With such easy installation, this technology could greatly improve the high cost of going solar.
9. Carbon-sucking nanotubes
Is there anything nanotubes can't do? The company Porifera has now developed a way of using nanotechnology to viably sequester carbon. It works by utilizing specially designed nanotubes with increased porosity and "nanofluidic" properties, which can "suck up" target molecules — in this case, CO2.
10. Hydrovolts Inc. new generation hydroelectricity
Seattle-based Hydrovolts Inc. has discovered a breakthrough new way of tapping our waterways for hydroelectricity without being quite so invasive. Instead of damming up mighty rivers or installing turbines in the middle of strong ocean currents, Hydrovolts has developed technology which can glean power from placid canals and other managed-flow waterways. Unlike conventional hydroelectricity, which generates power from water pressure, Hydrovolts' unique Flip-wing Turbine technology relies on kinetic energy generated from an ambient current. Power can even be developed from sewage treatment plants or food processors.
11. Retrofitted train engines
Amtrak has recently released a new design for its old engines — a design which promises to cut diesel exhaust by 50 percent. The first new retrofitted locomotive is scheduled to patrol the tracks between San Jose and Sacramento, and is already being called the cleanest passenger train in California. By revamping their old engines rather than purchasing new ones, Amtrak was able to save over $2 million an engine. Let's hope this is a green sign to come for the train industry on the whole.
Copyright: arcticle: mother nature network
Original article from: http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/photos/11-clean-tech-innovations-that-can-change-the-world/imaginati
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