Good News #72 - #79 --- Trash, Transportation, Energy, Sustainable Fishing, Bugs, Healthcare and a NEW CLASS
Hello again,
There is so much going on to support the need for GOOD NEWS. Below you'll find eight more GOOD NEWS ideas to inspire you.
RELATED: ONLINE Professional Development Class
HOW TO GET BUY-IN for NEW IDEAS
October 15 - 1:00 pm - 2:30 p.m. EDT
Executive Instructors: Joel Barker and Debbe Kennedy
In the last three INNOVATING in HARD TIMES webinars that Debbe and I have held this year, how to get buy-in for new ideas has been a top issue all around the world. Here's why: when you have an innovation, it is a 50-50 proposition. 50% is the idea. 50% is in how you present it. If you blow the second 50%, you can have a great idea that never gets accepted. Our October 15 webinar is designed to give you detailed guidelines and detailed examples that demonstrate how to get your ideas accepted. It is high-value content for those of you that are internally or externally working in your organizations to get acceptance for a new idea (e.g, new strategy, new product, new service, new offering, new organization, or a change initiative). Both, Debbe and I have dealt with this issue for the last decade helping organizations and individuals spread the good news for their new innovations and we are excited to share what we've learned. Tuition is significantly discounted for everyone if you register before October 1, as well as discounts for groups, seniors, and students.
To learn more about the class and to register CLICK HERE
or go to http://tinyurl.com/y984hn2
Hope you can join us!
Scroll down to see my good news ideas #72 through #79...
Joel Barker
-- Joel
futurist, filmmaker, author
www.innovationattheverge.com
TRASH
#72 - Converting Trash to Energy
What if you could take all the trash that is being produced every day and turn it into fuel for trucks and cars? And clean up the environment at the same time?
Several companies are working hard at doing exactly that. They are commercializing a new process that can turn the filthiest waste into clean and green energy. How does it work? Using plasma gasification, a kind of controlled, giant lightning bolt, which takes household waste and, at very high temperatures of up to 10,000 degrees celsius, converts the material into a gas that can be burned. This gas, "syngas" as it is called, can be converted to ethanol and synthetic diesel at costs that can compete with petroleum. Instead of ash as a waste product, any remains turn into a kind of glassy solid which could be used as a filler material in various products.
The plasma process kills two birds with one lightning bolt: it gets rid of the waste and produces useful fuel. If you consider the mountains of waste Americans produce each year, this is a good deal.
There is also a smaller, simpler, cheaper gasification system that can be used by small towns to produces gas without needing the plasma process.
As we keep innovating new ways to produce energy and get greener at the same time, we can see a pathway to a world where living the good life doesn't mean messing up the environment.
Google:"IST Energy", Inentec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_arc_waste_disposal
TRANSPORTATION
Tiny cars are catching on. Designed in the UK, the "Riversimple" hydrogen powered urban car is very good looking and very efficient. It needs only 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of hydrogen to go 320 kilometers(about 200 miles). It can carry two people comfortably and has a top speed of 50 miles per hour. For a city-only car that top speed isn't a problem. And increasing it to 70 mph shouldn't be a big deal if it is required.
The little car uses a fuel cell to convert the hydrogen to electricity to drive four electric motors, one in each wheel. These motors are also regenerators so when you step on the brakes, they convert the rolling energy back into electricity which is stored in small batteries. The fuel cell of choice is small and cheap compared to what US car makers are planning to use. How soon it will hit the road isn't clear.
Google: "Riversimple Urban Car"
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/hydrogen-powered-riversimple-urban-car-unveiled-makes-your-hybr/
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
#74 - A Small Matter
It looks like the power-converter block that many of us use to power our computers, our wireless phones in our homes, and our cell phones are going to get a lot smaller. So much smaller that the converter will be able to fit inside the apparatus instead of being separate.
The secret: a new technology using transistors made of gallium nitride instead of silicon ones. Not only are they smaller, but they use less energy as they convert the energy to the proper voltage.
Now, think about billions of cell phones and hundreds of millions of portable computers and think of all the energy that will be saved.
Thank you Fujitsu, whose scientists came up with this better technology.
Google: "Fujitsu AC converters made gallium nitride transistors"
URL: http://www.i-micronews.com/news/Fujitsu-Develops-GaN-HEMT-Power-Supply,3265.html
FISHING
About 37% of the oceans are under protective stewardship to keep those areas from being overfished. The results are very promising as the fish populations in those areas are coming back strong.
The remaining 63% still are still being overfished, but, as the "overfishermen" see the success of doing the right thing, hopefully they will join in the committment to keeping our oceans alive and healthy. This is one place where having a global regulation system would be good for everyone and all the living things in the ocean.
Google: "Sustainable fishing"
URL:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx + photo credit
http://www.thinkgreenliveclean.com/2009/08/coming-soon-sustainable-fishing/
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/successful-sustainable-fishing-iniceland.php
BUGS
Too often toxic chemicals are the solution to getting rid of unwanted bugs. Mark Bulmer, a researcher at Towson University in Maryland has discovered that glucose, a form of sugar, switches off the termite immune system which allows fungi to attack and kill them. Because glucose is simple, nontoxic, degrades quickly in the environment, and cheaply available it offers a highly beneficial approach for farmers who have to cope with termites.
Google: Termite Immune system, glucose
URL: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/31/12652
Photo Credits: www.internet4classrooms.com/
HEALTH CARE
Tuberculois has been on an advance around the world because of a new resistant strain. Using a new approach with nanoparticles, Harvard Medical School has developed a test that takes just 30 minutes to find out if you have the disease. The old test which used to take two weeks, allowed a sick person to continue passing on the disease because there were no test results.
This test will be very important because it can be used, for instance, at an airport to quickly test an incoming passenger who is suspected of having TB.
Google: Nanoparticle Test for TB
Image: CDC Phanie/Rex Features from New Scientist
URL:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327206.200-minimagnet-test-makes-things-sticky-for-tb.html
TRANSPORTATION
Too often when we think of transportation, we think of cars and planes. But trucks make up a hugely important part of the global transportation structure and have contributed large amounts of pollution and CO2 to the planet. Now, thanks in part to Amory Lovins (he should be given a knighthood from the Queen), trucks are about to become much more energy efficient and less polluting. For starters, think about this fact: today's heavy trucks are no more energy efficient than they were 40 years ago! Why didn't we write legislation to force them to get more energy efficient? They had a great lobby.
So, how much better can we make them. Using a hybrid system like Toyota introduced, trucks could become 20% more efficient. If we were to capture the waste heat a truck produces and use it to drive a steam engine as secondary power, we could get a 40% fuel savings. If we add proper aerodynamic technology, we could pick up another 11% in fuel savings. All in all it looks like relatively inexpensive technology available today could double or triple fuel efficiency in trucks with a corresponding reduction in CO2 generation and pollution. The real question is: why did we wait so long?
Google: Truck fuel efficiency
URL: (this is AGREA (Analysis Group for Regional
Energy Alternatives) article, by the way)
http://www.newscientist.com/search?doSearch=true&query=Heavy+trucks+fuel+efficiency
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/04/aerodynamic-hea.html
http://www.kenworth.com/brochures/FuelEfficiency.pdf
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYH/is_11_5/ai_75532055/
Thanks for sharing your info. I really appreciate your efforts and I will be waiting for your further write ups thanks once again.
http://themotoring.com
Posted by: Account Deleted | 02/07/2012 at 09:57 PM