Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability – Page 468

This can be good to purify the oceans and lakes.

Grow algae to reclaim water! Algae feed on the nutrients in wastewater, effectively purifying the water and producing oxygen during the process. Sunlight and LED lighting help the organisms to feed and grow, therefore our algae generators stand in the daylight filled Third Climate Zone. Water slowly recirculates through the six algae tubes, each of which has a steel base containing zeolite, a mineral that acts as a microbial filter, absorbing microorganisms that are not otherwise digested by the algae. The algae generators at Green Solution House are an important element of our on-site biological water purification system. The entire system can process 500 liters of water a day, which is used for irrigating the green wall and gardens and has the potential to be used for flushing public toilets in the building. The water cleaned by the algae is separated and further purified by UV light to reach drinking water quality.

Who’s behind it: Rambøll.

Where you’ll find it: In the Third Climate Zone.

Continue reading “Algae Water Purification” | >

Adapting the architecture for small city cars in a cost-efficient way is proving to be challenging because of the need to strip out a third of the costs compared with the ID.3.

Engineers have looked at everything from smaller electric motors to different battery module configurations to give the small EVs the high standard of crash protection that will be expected by customers.

Going back to March 2019, VW Group CEO Herbert Diess said it would use a new brand, likely the Spanish Seat marque, for electric versions of its small city cars – the VW Up, Skoda Citigo, and Seat Mii. The goal was to make “a great step toward an even more affordable electric mobility.”

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The JLTV is the successor to the Humvee, and the Army plans to buy at least 50,000 in the coming decades.
The Army, concerned that civilian adoption of electric vehicles could leave it vulnerable, is looking into making the JLTV itself an EV.
An electric JLTV would reduce the need for diesel fuel at remote outposts, with power provided by solar or nuclear energy.

#USArmy
#USmilitary
#MilitaryNews

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A new class of self-forming membrane to separate carbon dioxide from a mixture of gases has been developed by Newcastle University researchers.

Operating like a coffee filter, it lets harmless gases, such as nitrogen, exit into the atmosphere and then the can be processed.

The team believe that the system may be applicable for use in dioxide separation processes, either to protect the environment or in reaction engineering.

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Jet fighters can’t carry a huge tank of fuel because it would slow them down. Instead they have recourse to air-to-air refueling, using massive tanker planes as their gas stations. If electric vehicles could pull off the same kind of peer-to-peer charging scheme it could eliminate range phobia and speed the adoption of EVs.

On-the-road peer-to-peer charging depends on steerable booms to make the connection.

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Elon Musk tweeted a complaint about Tesla’s share price that wiped $14bn off the company’s stock market value on Friday morning.

The seven-word tweet was the latest controversial outburst from the outspoken chief executive, whose outpourings on Twitter have landed him in hot water before. An incorrect claim in the middle of 2018 that he was close to a buyout of Tesla led to a complaint from the US Department of Justice and a settlement that involved Mr Musk agreeing not to issue market-moving tweets in future without first clearing them with his company’s legal department.

Tesla did not immediately confirm whether Mr Musk’s tweet had been given legal clearance, and did not respond to a question about whether the company currently has a general counsel. Tesla lost three general counsels last year, one of them quitting after only two months.

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A recent analysis from a UK-based firm has determined that Tesla owners love to drive their vehicles, so much so that they actually rack up the most miles per year among specific car brands. This is a notable observation, and one that bodes well for the personal transportation industry as a whole.

Before the ongoing lockdown in the country, the RAC Foundation conducted an analysis of the Ministry of Transportation’s (MOT) data. According to the data presented, British car owners drive just a little bit over 10,000 miles per year on average during the first three years of vehicle ownership. A closer look into the data shows that this average is partly caused by the annual mileage of diesel and gas drivers.

On their own, diesel drivers average 12,496 miles annually during the first three years of ownership. This contrasts significantly with the figures from drivers of gasoline-powered cars, who average just 7,490 miles per year. This discrepancy is not that surprising, partly since diesel is usually much cheaper than gasoline, making them ideal for long trips. What is surprising is the data that came out from EV drivers.

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On Earth, there are organisms that resist radiation, heat, cold, and drying, even to the point of being able to live in the space vacuum.

Genetic biotechnology is usually discussed in the context of current and emerging applications here on Earth, and rightly so, since we still live exclusively in our planetary cradle. But as humanity looks outward, we ponder what kind of life we ought to take with us to support outposts and eventually colonies off the Earth.

While the International Space Station (ISS) and the various spacecraft that ferry astronauts on short bouts through space depend on consumables brought up from Earth to maintain life support, this approach will not be practical for extensive lunar missions, much less long term occupation of more distant sites. If we’re to build permanent bases, and eventually colonies, on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, moons of outer planets or in free space, we’ll need recycling life support systems. This means air, water, and food replenished through microorganisms and plants, and it’s not a new idea.

Continue reading “Deep-space travel, colonization may rely on genetically engineered life forms” | >

Lithium-sulfur batteries have been hailed as the next big step in battery technology, promising significantly longer use for everything from cellphones to electric vehicles on a single charge, while being more environmentally sustainable to produce than current lithium-ion batteries. However, these batteries don’t last as long as their lithium-ion counterparts, degrading over time.

A group of researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has found a way to stabilize one of the most challenging parts of -sulfur batteries, bringing the technology closer to becoming commercially viable. The team’s findings, published today in Joule, show that creating an artificial layer containing tellurium, inside the battery in-situ, on top of lithium metal, can make it last four times longer.

“Sulfur is abundant and environmentally benign with no supply chain issues in the U.S.,” said Arumugam Manthiram, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Texas Materials Institute. “But there are engineering challenges. We’ve reduced a problem to extend the cycle life of these batteries.”

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