News tagged with waste

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Turning heat to electricity

Turning heat to electricity... efficiently

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (64) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way ...


US army to be powered by waste

US army to be powered by waste

Technology / Energy

created Oct 12, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- Defense company Qinetiq has been awarded a contract to supply the US army with a system that generates electricity from garbage.


packing peanuts

Study Finds that Styrofoam Increases Biodiesel Power Output

Technology / Energy

created May 04, 2009 | popularity 2.7 / 5 (11) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- By dissolving polystyrene packing peanuts in biodiesel, scientists have found that they can boost the power output of the fuel while getting rid of garbage at the same time.


Tiny super-plant can clean up animal waste and be used for ethanol production

Tiny super-plant can clean up animal waste, be used for ethanol production

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (16) | comments 11

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that a tiny aquatic plant can be used to clean up animal waste at industrial hog farms and potentially be part of the answer for the global energy ...


Breakthrough made in energy efficiency, use of waste heat

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 01, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (12) | comments 4

Engineers at Oregon State University have made a major new advance in taking waste heat and using it to run a cooling system - a technology that can improve the energy efficiency of diesel engines, and perhaps some day will ...


Solarbulb

Solar-powered LED light made of bottles

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Jan 20, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (23) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Solarbulb, a new lighting gadget from miniWIZ, doesn't exactly come with all parts included: you have to add your own water or soda bottle. The LED Solarbulb screws onto just about any ...


Crashing the size barrier

Crashing the size barrier

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (15) | comments 6

Like surfers on monster waves, electrons can ride waves of plasma to very high energies in a very short distance. Scientists have proven that plasma acceleration works. Now they're developing it as a way to ...


A Greenpeace stands by an installation made from hazardous e-waste in New Delhi

'Catastrophic' e-waste fuels global toxic dump

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 0

A "catastrophic accumulation" of dozens of millions of tonnes of "e-waste" from computers, cellphones and television sets is fuelling a global pile of hazardous waste, an international body warned Friday.


Rice

Green Ideas: Making Concrete from Rice

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jul 21, 2009 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (13) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Concrete accounts for about 5% of all human-related CO2 emissions. The fact that we use so much cement in building could mean that the issue becomes even more pronounced in the future. Bu ...


Astronauts deal with flooded toilet in orbit (AP)

Astronauts deal with flooded toilet in orbit

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 19, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 6

(AP) -- The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet. One of two commodes aboard the international space station malfunctioned, ...


Recycling

Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 14, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (31) | comments 27

(PhysOrg.com) -- By now, nearly everyone knows that it is important to recycle. It helps the environment. Even my six-year-old knows that. But what if it doesn't? While it seems pretty straightforward, in ...


New technique can fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pre-treatments

New technique can fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pre-treatments

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jul 10, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 3

They've been dubbed "grassoline" - second generation biofuels made from inedible plant material, including fast-growing weeds, agricultural waste, sawdust, etc. - and numerous scientific studies have shown ...


MIT slows concrete creep to a crawl

Technology / Engineering

created Jun 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 3

MIT civil engineers have for the first time identified what causes the most frequently used building material on earth — concrete — to gradually deform, decreasing its durability and shortening the lifespan of infrastructures ...


Dell bans e-waste export to developing countries

Technology / Other

created May 12, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- PC maker Dell Inc. formally banned on Tuesday the export of broken computers, monitors and parts to developing countries amid complaints that lax enforcement of environmental and worker-safety regulations have allowed ...


Advance toward producing biofuels without stressing global food supply

Advance toward producing biofuels without stressing global food supply

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 07, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Scientists in California are reporting use of a first-of-its-kind approach to craft genetically engineered microbes with the much-sought ability to transform switchgrass, corn cobs, and other organic materials ...