Plastic Bag Waste Used to Make Materials for Nanotechnology

Types of Carbon Nanotubes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

University of Adelaide researchers have developed a process for turning waste plastic bags into a high-tech nanomaterial.

The innovative nanotechnology uses non-biodegradable plastic grocery bags to make 'carbon nanotube membranes' ‒ highly sophisticated and expensive materials with a variety of potential advanced applications including filtration, sensing, energy storage and a range of biomedical innovations.

"Non-biodegradable plastic bags are a serious menace to natural ecosystems and present a problem in terms of disposal," says Professor Dusan Losic, ARC Future Fellow and Research Professor of Nanotechnology in the University's School of Chemical Engineering.

"Transforming these waste materials through 'nanotechnological recycling' provides a potential solution for minimising environmental pollution at the same time as producing high-added value products."

Carbon nanotubes are tiny cylinders of carbon atoms, one nanometre in diameter (1/10,000 the diameter of a human hair). They are the strongest and stiffest materials yet discovered - hundreds of times stronger than steel but six times lighter - and their unique mechanical, electrical, thermal and transport properties present exciting opportunities for research and development. They are already used in a variety of industries including in electronics, sports equipment, long-lasting batteries, sensing devices and wind turbines.

The University of Adelaide's Nanotech Research Group has 'grown' the carbon nanotubes onto nanoporous alumina membranes. They used pieces of grocery plastic bags which were vaporised in a furnace to produce carbon layers that line the pores in the membrane to make the tiny cylinders (the carbon nanotubes). The idea was conceived and carried out by PhD student Tariq Altalhi.

"Initially we used ethanol to produce the carbon nanotubes," says Professor Losic. "But my student had the idea that any carbon source should be useable."

The huge potential market for carbon nanotubes hinges on industry's ability to produce large quantities more cheaply and uniformly. Current synthesis methods usually involve complex processes and equipment, and most companies on the market measure production output in only several grams per day.

"In our laboratory, we've developed a new and simplified method of fabrication with controllable dimensions and shapes, and using a waste product as the carbon source," says Professor Losic.

The process is also catalyst and solvent free, which means the plastic waste can be used without generating poisonous compounds.

This research has been published online ahead of print in the journal Carbon.

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The above story is based on materials provided by University of Adelaide.

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Energy Department Launches Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines Project

Via energy.gov.

The Energy Department today announced the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines project to improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce training and certification programs for five key energy-related jobs: Energy Auditor, Commissioning Professional, Building/Stationary Engineer, Facility Manager, and Energy Manager. These voluntary workforce guidelines will support the Better Buildings Initiative goal of making commercial buildings 20 percent more energy efficient over the next 10 years, while helping businesses and communities save money by saving energy and creating new clean energy jobs across the country.

Improving the energy and operational performance of commercial buildings requires highly-skilled and qualified workers, particularly as building technologies become more advanced. The Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines will support the development of high-quality training and certification programs built upon a clear set of industry-developed guidelines—to the benefit of workers, employers, building owners, and policymakers.

The Energy Department has enlisted the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) to convene industry subject matter experts to develop the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines. NIBS will establish a Commercial Workforce Credentialing Council (CWCC) comprised of private and public sector industry stakeholders to support this effort moving forward.

The guidelines will include an industry-validated Job Task Analysis (JTA) for each occupation, certification schemes (blueprints), and learning objectives. The Energy Department and the General Services Administration will recognize assessment-based certificate and competency-based certification programs that successfully implement the guidelines and achieve third-party accreditation.


To learn more about the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines project, please visit buildings.energy.gov/workforce. Sign up here for the project webinar scheduled for October 17th.

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Low Costs and Big Scale: A New Era for Solar

English: solar PV - Second largest Array in UK (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Solar’s high price tag once limited its use to those willing or required to pay more for cleaner power — but that’s quickly changing. A dramatic drop in panel prices means we are now in a new era of solar: one in which solar technology costs are no longer the major barrier to scale.

Last week we were joined by researchers from our national labs – NREL and LBNL – for a webinar on that very subject. The new briefing they presented, “Photovoltaic System Pricing Trends: Historical, Recent, and Near-Term Projections (2013),” draws on several ongoing research activities at the two labs, including:

    LBNL’s annual Tracking the Sun report series
    NREL’s bottom-up PV cost modeling
    NREL’s synthesis of PV market data and projections

Their combined work is intended to help us all gain a better understanding of recent price reductions and what comes next on the path to low-cost PV. Watch for yourself:



Solar PV Pricing Trends Research from U.S. National Labs 9-11-13 10.01 AM from Vote Solar on Vimeo.


Essentially, we’ve seen a 6-7% average annual reduction in the pre-incentive price of installed solar since 1998. Looking back, that decline was largely due to a significant reduction in global module prices over the past few years. Looking forward, more price reductions are expected! However, module prices are expected to stabilize, and so those continued declines are likely to come from reductions in non-module “soft” costs like permitting, cost of capital and customer acquisition.

Our briefing with the National Labs was followed quickly by the release of another welcome report on solar progress: the latest U.S. Solar Market Insight from GTM Research and SEIA. The report showed that as of Q2 2013, the U.S. has installed a 9.4 gigawatts of solar capacity — enough to power more than 1.5 million  American homes. Let’s remind ourselves that in 2007, we celebrated the fact that we had 500 megawatts of installed solar capacity. Now, less than 6 years later, we have nearly TWENTY TIMES that much. All this goes to show that low costs + market access = scale. And with good policy and business innovation, we are well on our way to solving that equation.

In this new era of low PV prices, our work at Vote Solar has shifted toward policies that specifically target remaining “soft” costs, continue to broaden market participation, and ensure that we’re preparing our grid to take full advantage of a new energy landscape that involves lots more solar.

Article above based on materials from Vote Solar.

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New LEDs light the way to a Brighter Future

Light-emitting diode (Photo: teraminato)

LED light bulbs can be brighter and more energy efficient than ever, thanks to a high performance LED driver newly developed by researchers from the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering.

The new driver powers LED light bulbs with an innovative approach called multi-level PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation), which delivers remarkable improvements in terms of light quality and energy efficiency, when compared to pulse width modulation and linear driver approaches currently used in LED products.

By traditional method of pulse width modulation, LEDs are fed pulsed current instead of steady DC. The drive current is turned ON and OFF at a rate faster than being perceptible by human eyes. Powering LEDs in pulses makes their light output easily controllable.

The research team, formed by Dr Lai Yuk Ming, Dr Loo Ka Hong and Prof. Michael Tse, gives the PWM method a new twist. The pulsed operation is redesigned in a way to maximize light output while minimizing wasted energy in the form of heat. The result is higher lumen per watt. Dr Loo Ka Hong said they achieved additional energy saving by up to 15%.

Single LED module consisting of 32x32 LED pixels

When used in a large scale application, it can save a lot of energy. The LED billboard on One Times Square in New York is a good example. The math goes like this: The giant display uses 12 million bulbs and 250 KW of power. If the billboard is on for 16 hours a day, the energy bill comes to US$18,000 a month. A 12% drop in energy consumption means US$2,160 in energy savings. That’s something to roll your eyes at.

Furthermore, it has lowered cooling requirements and needs smaller size heat sink compared to conventional methods. That means LED systems can be made smaller. With excellent dimming capability, the new MPWM driver allows manufacturers to create fully dimmable LEDs, which can be dimmed down to 0 watt of power. These superior qualities pave way for brighter, smarter and more versatile LED lighting solutions.

The world is switching to LEDs for huge environmental benefits. If all the traditional light bulbs in the world were replaced with energy-saving ones, lighting energy use could be cut by 40%, according to Worldwatch Institute [1]. The Energy Saving Trust has similar projections [2], which said the resultant carbon saving would be the equivalent of taking 70,000 cars off the road.

Council House in Perth, Western Australia, lit up by LED lights installed on the window frames. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the greenest alternative to incandescent lamps, LEDs are a popular choice of lighting but they are not perfect. Consumers are looking for a brighter and more natural glow matching up to incandescent light bulbs. The demand for brightness is even more pronounced in high power applications such as automobile headlights and architectural lightings. LED research worldwide is looking to build a perfect substitute to incandescent. It is exciting to have advanced LED lighting with a simple solution such as MPWM that brings about significant energy saving.

Obviously, the novel technology allows a better product to be made. High illuminating performance combined with good thermal protection allowed manufacturers to create compact lighting solutions with a very high lumen output. And the additional cost is little because all of these qualities could be achieved with the use of low cost ICs. This could be music to the ear for LED manufacturers.

This innovative applied technology has already aroused the attention of the international market. Recently it has won a Gold Award at the 41st International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in April of 2013

Story based on materials provided by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, via ResearchSEA.

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