Waste from manual to infrared?
Household recycling collection materials usually end up in a sorting facility to separate paper, glass and different types of plastics. The early plants were mainly hand sorting on a picking belt (like the early mineral processing plants). Over time these plants have been progressively modified to remove potentially back breaking manual sorting to more automation.
Recently Thiess Services opened Australia’s most advanced materials recovery facility (MRF) to date, a $41 million plant that can sort some 25 tonnes of material an hour from the central coast councils of Wyong and Gosford, north of Sydney. The main advance is that the facility is Australia’s first to use near-infrared technology to automatically sort each of the glass, paper and plastic material streams.
While as yet unproven, the use of these high-tech sorting systems is expected to see waste residuals from the facility down as low as 5-6%. On top of the environmental advantages of recycling – which will alone reduce carbon emissions by over 22,000 tonnes annually – the site also integrates a number of other sustainability features.
A 300,000-litre rainwater collection and storage system will provide water for toilet flushing and for washing trucks. Sensors in the office section will ensure lighting turns off automatically if no staff are in the section.
The ultra low sulphur truck fleet will run on biodiesel. The company investigated the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) but said the environmental benefits of the low-sulphur motors were greater. Sourced from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net Punching your way out of a paper bag may not be so easy!
Punching your way out of a paper bag could become a lot harder, thanks to the development of a new kind of paper that is stronger than cast iron. The new paper could be used to reinforce conventional paper, produce extra-strong sticky tape or help create tough synthetic replacements for biological tissues, says Lars Berglund from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
Despite its great strength, Berglund's "nanopaper" is produced from a biological material found in conventional paper: cellulose. This long sugar molecule is a principal component of plant cell walls and is the most common organic compound on Earth. Wood is typically about half cellulose, mixed with other structural compounds.
In plant cell walls individual cellulose molecules bind together to produce fibres around 20 nanometres in diameter, 5000 times thinner than a human hair. These fibres form tough networks that provide the cell walls with structural support.
"Cellulose nanofibres are the main reinforcement in all plant structures and are characterised by nanoscale dimensions, high strength and toughness," Beglund said.
Cellulose is extracted from wood to make paper, is the basis of cellophane, and has also recently been used by materials scientists developing novel plastic materials. But they have used it only as a cheap filler material, ignoring its mechanical properties.
However, the mechanical processes used to pulp wood and process it into paper damage the individual cellulose fibres, greatly reducing their strength. So Berglund and colleagues have developed a gentler process that preserves the fibres' strength.
The new method involves breaking down wood pulp with enzymes and then fragmenting it using a mechanical beater. The shear forces produced cause the cellulose to gently disintegrate into its component fibres. The end result is undamaged cellulose fibres suspended in water. When the water is drained away Berglund found that the fibres join together into networks held by hydrogen bonds, forming flat sheets of "nanopaper".
Mechanical testing shows it has a tensile strength of 214 megapascals, making it stronger than cast iron (130 MPa) and almost as strong as structural steel (250 MPa). Normal paper has a tensile strength less than 1 MPa. The tests used strips 40 millimetres long by 5mm wide and about 50 micrometres thick.
For more information on this story from New Scientist go to: http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14084-new-superpaper-is-stronger-than-cast-iron.html?feedId=online-news_rss20. With thanks for drawing attention to the article to Glen Moore, Director of Wollongong Science Centre and Planetarium (http://sciencecentre.uow.edu.au) Cut carbon the Smart Way?
Transformation in the way businesses and individuals use technology could reduce global greenhouse emissions by 15% by 2020 and deliver energy efficiency savings of over €500 billion ($818 billion) to business, according to a new report released by independent non-profit The Climate Group and industry group the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).
The report SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age (http://www.theclimategroup.org/assets/resources/publications/Smart2020Report.pdf ) says the information and communication technology (ICT) sector is currently responsible for 2% of global emissions but its ability to monitor and maximise energy efficiency both within and outside of the sector could cut CO2 emissions by 7.8 gigatonnes of CO2e (GtCO2e) by 2020 – an amount equivalent to 15% of global emissions and greater than the current annual emissions of either the US or China. Four case studies were included in the report to illustrate how ICT can reduce emissions. Smart grid technologies represented the largest opportunity explored in the study, and could potentially reduce global emissions by 2.03 GtCO2e and lead to energy savings of €79 billion ($129 billion) for industry.
A ‘smart grid’ is a set of software and hardware tools that enable generators to route power more efficiently, reducing the need for excess capacity and allowing two-way, real time information exchange with customers for real time demand side management (DSM). An example is smart meters.
The use of ‘smart industry motors’ was another example included in the report. A motor is ‘smart’ when it can be controlled to adjust its power usage to a required output, usually through a variable speed drive (VSD) and intelligent motor controller (IMC) – a piece of hardware controlling the VSD.
Applied globally, smart industry motors and industrial automation could reduce emissions by 0.97 GtCO2e in 2020 or lead to a savings of €68 billion ($111 billion) for business, the report found. Other examples include:
• The global emissions savings from ‘smart logistics’ in 2020 would reach 1.52 GtCO2e, with energy savings worth €208 billion ($340 billion). ‘Smart logistics’ involve the use of software and hardware tools that monitor, optimise and manage operations, which helps reduce the storage needed for inventory, fuel consumption, kilometres driven and frequency of vehicles travelling empty or partially loaded; and
• Globally, ‘smart buildings technologies’ would enable 1.68 GtCO2e of emissions savings or $216 billion ($353 billion). Technologies include building management systems that run heating and cooling systems according to occupants’ needs or software that automatically switches off all PCs and monitors after everyone has gone home.
Sourced from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net
Event: The Four Dimensions of Business Innovations for more profit
Dr Kam Keong Yew, Ph.D (Dr.YKK) of Mindbloom in this seminar will share with you techniques of introducing innovation into your business to stand out from your competition. The seminar will cover:
• Differences between creativity & innovation
• The 4 Dimensions of Business Innovations
• How to introduce these dimensions to stand out from your competition.
CEOs, general, operations and marketing managers of medium to large enterprises, accountants and consultants are invited to attend this informative and innovative event.
Dr. YKK is an international speaker, trainer, consultant and best-selling author on creativity and innovation. He has been working in the area of creativity for more than 10 years with senior corporate leaders, SME entrepreneurs and government agencies.
He has written and published 10 books on creativity. One of his best-selling books (reprinted 10 times) is “You Are Creative-Let Your Creativity Bloom”. His other books include “Creative Business Challenges – Innovative Business Solutions” and “Nurturing Creative Children.”
This event is free. Tuesday 29 July 2008 8.30am – 10.30am at Western Sydney Business Centre NSW Department of State and Regional Development Level 2, 470 Church Street (Cnr Harold St) North Parramatta, NSW 2151
For Further information contact: Mangala Srinivasan; Western Sydney Business Centre; P: 8843 1116 or E: Mangala.srinivasan@business.nsw.gov.au
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