Category Environment/Geology

New Green Technology generates

The current Air-gen device can power small devices. Photos courtesy: UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs.
The current Air-gen device can power small devices. Photos courtesy: UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs.

Renewable device could help mitigate climate change, power medical devices. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air, a new technology they say could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy, climate change and in the future of medicine.

As reported today in Nature, the laboratories of electrical engineer Jun Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amherst have created a device they call an “Air-gen.” or air-powered generator, with electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by the microbe Geobacter...

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Self-Learning Heat­ing Control system Saves Energy

The “Urban Mining and Recycling” unit in the NEST research building has two student rooms. One of them was equipped with a self-learning heating and cooling control system. Image: Zooey Braun, Stuttgart

Can buildings learn to save all by themselves? Researchers think so. In their experiments, they fed a new self-learning heat­ing control system with temperature data from the previous year and the current weather forecast. The ‘smart’ control system was then able to assess the building’s behavior and act with good anticipation. The result: greater comfort, lower energy costs.

Factory halls, airport terminals and high-rise office buildings are often equipped with automated “anticipatory” heating systems...

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Toward Safer Disposal of PCBs

Researchers have developed a new, safer method to dispose of printed circuit boards.
Credit: junpiiiiiiiiiii/Shutterstock.com

Printed circuit boards are vital components of modern electronics. However, once they have served their purpose, they are often burned or buried in landfills, polluting the air, soil and water. Most concerning are the brominated flame retardants added to printed circuit boards to keep them from catching fire. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have developed a ball-milling method to break down these potentially harmful compounds, enabling safer disposal.

Composed of 30% metallic and 70% nonmetallic particles, printed circuit boards support and connect all of the electrical components of a device...

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Creating a Nanoscale On-Off Switch for Heat

Microscopic view of a highly-ordered crystalline structure
Source: College of Engineering
Research assistant Wei Gong, master’s student Xiao Luo, and Associate Professor Sheng Shen of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Researchers create a polymer thermal regulator that can quickly transform from a conductor to an insulator, and back again. This control of heat flow at the nanoscale opens up new possibilities in developing switchable thermal devices, solid-state refrigeration, waste heat scavenging, thermal circuits, and computing. This is the first time that this work has been demonstrated experimentally.

Polymers are used to develop various materials, such as plastics, nylons, and rubbers...

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