Top 4 latest technologies that help build a happier future
A greener - clean - beautiful and sustainable world is what people always aim for. Let's find out 4 latest technologies to reduce CO2, recycle plastic and wind turbines... to help build a happier future for humanity below.
World first prototype of recyclable wind turbine blade
Image: GE
The ZEBRA (Zero wastE Blade ReseArch), a consortium led by GE, is today marking a new step forward on the industry’s transition to a circular economy with the production of the first prototype of its 100% recyclable wind turbine blade.
According to University of Cambridge, there will be 43 million tonnes of blade waste around the world by 2050. The Zero Waste Blade Research (ZEBRA) Project is working on more sustainable materials in the form of thermoplastic composites.
The 62-meter (203-ft) prototype blade is made with Elium resin from materials company Arkema, which is a glass-fiber reinforced thermoplastic. Not only is the material 100 percent recyclable, it is said to deliver a similar level of performance to thermoset resins that are favored for their lightweight and durability.
Through a chemical recycling method, the material can be depolymerized and turned into a new virgin resin for re-use, acting as a proof-of-concept for a circular economy loop for the wind energy sector. Before that happens, in the coming weeks LM Wind Power will start full-scale structural testing to verify the blade's performance. It will then verify these advanced recycling methods later in the year, while also working on ways of recycling production waste.
“With this project we are addressing two crucial industry challenges. On one hand, we are progressing on our Zero Waste Blades vision by preventing and recycling manufacturing waste. On the other, we are taking blade recyclability to a new level: the end-of-life thermoplastic composite blade material has high value in itself and can be readily utilized in other industries,” states John Korsgaard, Senior Director, Engineering Excellence, LM Wind Power.
“Upcycling” plastics to create other high-value materials makes recycling more economically worthwhile. Image credit: BillionPhotos.com.
Researchers at the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath developed a process for recycling plastic that preserves its quality indefinitely.
More efficient ways of breaking down and reusing plastic are necessary to make recycling more economically viable. “Our method creates new opportunities for polycarbonate recycling under mild conditions, helping to promote a circular economy approach and keep carbon in the loop indefinitely,” said CSCT’s Jack Payne, first author on a new study in ChemSusChem.
Mechanical recycling, the traditional approach, is harsh, involving high temperatures that degrade plastic so that it is no longer as valuable for repurposing into new products. The Bath team used a zinc-based catalyst and methanol to break down a type of plastic called BPA-PC, often used in construction, to its constituents at room temperature — and in a mere 20 minutes. The results could be reused to produce industrial chemicals and upcycled plastics of equal quality to the originals.
Image credit: Getty images.
Irish and German scientists pinpointed a way that the immune system mediates diet-related weight gain.
The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, further our understanding of the role inflammation plays in the development of obesity. What’s more, said co-author Padraic Fallon, of Trinity College Dublin’s School of Medicine, the discovery has broad impacts for addressing how obesity influences the severity of other diseases, such as COVID-19.
People with obesity are more likely to develop conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Scientists are still trying to figure out how inflammation (an immune response) contributes to obesity and related health issues. The researchers pinpointed a “checkpoint protein” on a particular type of immune cell that appears to limit inflammation in fat. Without that functional immune checkpoint, mice fed a “Western high-fat diet” gained more weight and developed signs of diabetes. Changes in that protein were also found to correlate with obesity in humans.
The ability to convert waste gases from steel mills into commodity chemicals could make the Clostridium autoethanogenum bacterium an industrial champion. Image credit: Shi-You Ding/Michigan State University.
Scientists at LanzaTech, in Skokie, Illinois, engineered a microbe that converts waste gas from steel plants into industrial chemicals.
The innovation not only has the potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere, but obviates the need for fossil fuels in the production of industrial chemicals. The technique could be applied to many different bacteria and sources of emissions, such as gases from landfills and agriculture.
Bacterial fermentation is common in the production of cheese, yogurt and alcohol. But for commodity chemicals, fossil fuels have proven cheaper and easier. The researchers used genetic engineering to create a strain of the bacterium Clostridium autoethanogenum that efficiently converts waste gases produced by steel mills into acetone and isopropanol (a combined $10 billion market). What’s more, the bacteria fix carbon in the process, paving the way for “environmentally sustainable, carbon-negative manufacturing of chemicals”.