Indian researchers show how COVID-19 PPE can be converted to biofuel

Plastic from used personal protective equipment (PPE) can and should be transformed into renewable liquid fuels, according to Indian researchers. The study, published in the journal Biofuels, suggested a strategy that could help to mitigate the problem of dumped PPE - currently being disposed of at unprecedented levels due to the current COVID-19 pandemic - becoming a significant threat to the environment.

The research from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) in Uttarakhand shows how billions of items of disposable PPE can be converted from its polypropylene (plastic) state into biofuels - which is known to be at par with standard fossil fuels. "The transformation into biocrude, a type of synthetic fuel, will not just prevent the severe aftereffects to humankind and the environment but also produce a source of energy," said study lead author Dr Sapna Jain from UPES.

There is high production and utilisation of PPE to protect the community of health workers and other frontline workers of COVID-19. The disposal of PPE is a concern owing to its material i.e. non-woven polypropylene. "The proposed strategy is a suggestive measure addressing the anticipated problem of disposal of PPE," Jain said.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic specifically, PPE is being designed for single-use followed by disposal. Once these plastic materials are discharged into the environment they end up in landfills or oceans, as their natural degradation is difficult at ambient temperature. They need decades to decompose.

Recycling these polymers requires both physical methods and chemical methods. Reduction, reuse and recycling are the three pillars of sustainable development that can help to prevent the disposal of plastic in the environment. The research team reviewed many related research articles as they looked to explore the current policies around PPE disposal, the polypropylene content in PPE, and the feasibility of converting PPE into biofuel.

In particular, they focused on the structure of polypropylene, its suitability for PPE, why it poses an environmental threat and methods of recycling this polymer. Their conclusive findings call for the PPE waste to be converted into fuel using pyrolysis. This a chemical process for breaking down the plastic at high temperature - between 300-400 degrees centigrade for an hour - without oxygen.

According to the researchers, this process is among the most promising and sustainable methods of recycling compared with incineration and landfill.

"Pyrolysis is the most commonly used chemical method whose benefits include the ability to produce high quantities of bio-oil which is easily biodegradable," said study co-author Bhawna Yadav Lamba.

"There is always a need for alternative fuels or energy resources to meet our energy demands. The pyrolysis of plastics is one of the methods to mitigate our energy crisis," she noted.(IANS)

Source: https://southasiamonitor.org

Read More........→August 09, 2020

The secrets behind Sao Paulo’s extraordinary recycling rates

The figures are breathtaking, to the point of being on the verge of miraculous. ABAL, the Brazilian Aluminium Association’s 2011 figures show that for the tenth (yes, 10th) year running Brazil has the highest rate of aluminium canrecycling in the world reaching a new world record of 98,3%. In other words, over 98 of every 100 cans produced in Brazil make their way to the recycling plant before hitting the rubbish heap. Brazil is a vast country so that equates to 2million cans recycled per hour and in São Paulo the system is of such efficiency that the same metal you drink out of today will have a 98% chance of being back on a shelf somewhere in the city within 33 days. To put that in context, the next highest recycler of aluminium cans is Japan at 92,6%, a highly developed and procedure-focused country. The average for Europe is a shameful 66,7% which in turn is still slightly higher than the rate of 54,1% in the US. The can recycling business indirectly saves energy due to a recycled can being 20 times more energy efficient to produce than a new one and as a sector injects over R$ 600million into the Brazilian economy per year. Impressive figures but how is that achieved. Whilst the ABAL and the politicians may point to educational programs, social initiatives, environmental awareness, technlogy and processing

Recycling bins, a rare sight in São Paulo

chains, the real answer is in the last paragraph. It’s all about the money. Part of the R$ 600million comes from paying for to have these cans searched for and collected by a legion of scrap hunters or catadores as they are locally known. A catador, or scrap collector, hard at work. No catador is hunting cans for the joy of global environmental impact, rather the can has become the best scrap to hunt. You get more reais per gram handing a can than virtually anything else, and they are thrown out in abundance. It is the cheapest and most efficient recycling system and requires no government investment. For every 75 cans a catador gets approximately R$3 (depending on the region) whereas a kilo of paper or 20 plastic PET bottles fetch just a few cents.  The catadores are paid enough for it to be worthwhile for them to eek out a living on collecting cans (rather than other material) but sufficiently poorly to ensure recycling
is a highly profitable activity. Pure capitalism at work, ethically questionable, but without a doubt effective as the 98,3% figure shows. But before we celebrate here’s a thought for the next time you go to a major event in São Paulo and you see a catador collecting cans: the time he invests in collecting cans he neglects in collecting other material. And without true governmental initiatives, excelling in one sector will by definition mean failing in other. Unsurprisingly Brazil is nowhere to be seen in the ranking of top paper-recycling countries for instance…Source: Article

Read More........→March 19, 2014

Dynamic Tape: Heal Quicker

Credit: 180 Communications

There are different kinds of athletic tape but Dynamic Tape is different as its elastic recoil helps reduce the load on the tendons. Ryan Kendrick, a musculoskeletal physiotherapist and the founder of Dynamic Tape describes using it like a bungee cord, this is of course elastic and absorbs shock. This means athletes aren't putting such a strain on certain muscles particularly any that may be injured. It does this without restricting any movements, which is also important when you are doing a sport or exercising. "Once clinicians understand the principles of Dynamic Tape and what it is capable of, they can integrate it into a variety of treatment approaches," says Kendrick. With an injury, "being able to modify the load can reduce pain early on and allow for quicker rehab and recovery." For some athletes, the tape is applied in a way that mimics the action of an injured muscle or tendon. It is placed on the body with the muscle

Credit: 180 Communications

or joint in the shortened position and with stretch on the tape. As the muscle or joint lengthens, the tape is stretched further and absorbs the load. This reduces the work of the muscles. What is really interesting is that Dynamic Tape is now being used with children who have cerebral palsy and other problems. Cerebral palsy means you can't control your muscles and the muscles are weak. This is where Dynamic Tape can help to get the muscles working more correctly. It can also correct the way a child walks; it does this by supporting postural control. Physiotherapists can therefore tackle each problem and develop individual techniques with the Dynamic Tape to achieve better control. “Because of the unique properties, visco-elasticity, strong recoil and four way stretch, the Dynamic Tape can contribute its elastic potential energy to resist, Contacts and sources:Jay Hyber 180 Communications. Source: Nano Patents And Innovations

Read More........→October 16, 2013

Next Yellowstone Caldera Super Eruption Predicted By Scientists

A thorough examination of tiny crystals of zircon, a mineral found in rhyolites, an igneous rock, from the Snake River Plain has solidified evidence for a new way of looking at the life cycle of super-volcanic eruptions in the long track of the Yellowstone hotspot, say University of Oregon scientists. The pattern emerging from new and previous research completed in the last five years under a National Science Foundation career award, said UO geologist Ilya N. Bindeman, is that another super-eruption from the still-alive Yellowstone volcanic field is less likely for the next few million years than previously thought (see related story, "Not in a million years, says Oregon geologist about Yellowstone eruption"). The last eruption 640,000 years ago created the Yellowstone Caldera and the Lava Creek Tuff in what is now Yellowstone National Park. University of Oregon geologist Ilya Bindeman, left, and graduate student Dana Drew, working in Bindeman's stable isotope laboratory say that the composition of zircon bits in igneous rocks in the Yellowstone hotspot track tell a new story on how super volcanoes recycle magma.

Credit: University of Oregon

The Yellowstone hotspot creates a conveyor belt style of volcanism because of the southwest migration of the North American plate at 2-4 centimeters (about .8 to 1.6 inches) annually over the last 16 million years of volcanism. Due to the movement of the North American plate, the plume interaction with the crust leaves footprints in the form of caldera clusters, in what is now the Snake River Plain, Bindeman

said. The Picabo volcanic field of southern Idaho, described in a new paper by a six-member team, was active between 10.4 and 6.6 million years ago and experienced at least three, and maybe as many as six, violent caldera-forming eruptions. The field has been difficult to assess, said lead author Dana Drew, a UO graduate student, because the calderas have been buried by as much as two kilometers of basalt since its eruption cycle died. The work at Picabo is detailed in a paper online ahead of publication in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The team theorized that basalt from the mantle plume, rocks from Earth's crust and previously erupted volcanoes are melted together to form the rhyolites erupted in the Snake River Plain. Before each eruption, rhyolite magma is stored in dispersed pockets throughout the upper crust, which are later mixed together, according to geochemical evidence. "We think that this batch-assembly process is an important part of caldera-forming eruptions, and generating rhyolites in general," Drew said. In reaching their conclusions, Drew and colleagues analyzed radiogenic and stable isotopic data -- specifically oxygen and hafnium -- in zircons detected in rhyolites found at the margins of the Picabo field and from a deep borehole. That data, in combination with whole rock geochemistry and zircon uranium-lead geochronology helped provide a framework to understand the region's ancient volcanic past. Previous research on the related Heise volcanic field east of Picabo yielded similar results. "There is a growing database of the geochemistry of rhyolites in the Yellowstone hotspot track," Drew said. "Adding Picabo provides a missing link in the database. Path of the Yellowstone hot spot over the past

16 million years Drew and colleagues, through their oxygen isotope analyses, identified a wide diversity of oxygen ratios occurring in erupted zircons near the end of the Picabo volcanic cycle. Such oxygen ratios are referred to as delta-O-18 signatures based on oxygen 18 levels relative to seawater. (Oxygen 18 contains eight protons and 10 neutrons; Oxygen 16, with eight protons and eight neutrons, is the most commonly found form of oxygen in nature) The approach provided a glimpse into the connection of surface and subsurface processes at a caldera cluster. The interaction of erupted rhyolite with groundwater and surface water causes hydrothermal alteration and the change in oxygen isotopes, thereby providing a

Rhyolite

fingerprinting tool for the level of hydrothermal alteration, Drew said. "Through the eruptive sequence, we begin to generate lower delta-O-18 signatures of the magmas and, with that, we also see a more diverse signature," Drew said. "By the time of the final eruption there is up to five per mil diversity in the signature recorded in the zircons." The team attributes these signatures to the mixing of diverse magma batches dispersed in the upper crust, which were formed by melting variably hydrothermally altered rocks -- thus diverse delta-O-18 -- after repeated formation of calderas and regional extension or stretching of the crust. When the pockets of melt are rapidly assembled, the process could be the trigger for caldera forming eruptions, Bindeman said. "That leads to a homogenized magma, but in a way that preserves these zircons of different signatures from the individual pockets of melt," he said. This research, he added, highlights the importance of using new micro-analytical isotopic techniques to relate geochemistry at the crystal-scale to processes occurring at the crustal-wide scale in generating and predicting large-volume rhyolitic eruptions. "This important research by Dr. Bindeman and his team demonstrates the enormous impact an NSF CAREER award can have," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation and dean of the graduate school at the University of Oregon. "The five-year project is providing new insights into the eruption cycles of the Yellowstone hotspot and helping scientists to better predict future volcanic activity." Contacts and sources: Jim Barlow, University of Oregon. Source: Nano Patents And Innovations

Read More........→October 12, 2013

Another American High Frontier First: 3-D Manufacturing in Space

Image above: In August of 2011, Made In Space started its initial testing of the effects of microgravity on 3D printing. Image credit: Made in Space. 

In preparation for a future where parts and tools can be printed on demand in space, NASA and Made in Space Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., have joined to launch equipment for the first 3-D microgravity printing experiment to the International Space Station. If successful, the 3-D Printing in Zero G Experiment (3-D Print) will be the first device to manufacture parts in space. 3-D Print will use extrusion additive manufacturing, which builds objects, layer by layer, out of polymers and other materials. The 3-D Print hardware is scheduled to be certified and ready for launch to the space station next year. "As NASA ventures further into space, whether redirecting an asteroid or sending humans to Mars, we'll need transformative technology to reduce cargo weight and volume," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said during a recent tour of the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "In the future, perhaps astronauts will be able to print the tools or components they need while in space." NASA is a government leader in 3-D printing for engineering applications. The technology holds tremendous potential for future space exploration. One day, 3-D printing may allow an entire spacecraft to be manufactured in space, eliminating design constraints caused by the challenges and mass constraints of launching from Earth. This same technology may help revolutionize American manufacturing and benefit U.S. industries. "The president's Advanced Manufacturing Initiative cites additive manufacturing, or '3-D printing,' as one of the key technologies that will keep U.S. companies competitive and maintain world leadership in our new global technology economy," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. "We're taking that technology to new heights, by working with Made in Space to test 3-D

Image above: Under a contract with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Made In Space is building the first 3D printer for space. The 3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014. Image credit: Made in Space. 

printing aboard the space station. Taking advantage of our orbiting national laboratory, we'll be able to test new manufacturing techniques that benefit our astronauts and America's technology development pipeline." In addition to manufacturing spacecraft designs in orbit, 3-D printers also could work with robotic systems to create tools and habitats needed for human missions to Mars and other planetary destinations. Housing and laboratories could be fabricated by robots using printed building blocks that take advantage of in-situ resources, such as soil or minerals. Astronauts on long-duration space missions also could print and recycle tools as they are needed, saving mass, volume and resources. "The 3-D Print experiment with NASA is a step towards the future," said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made in Space. "The ability to 3-D print parts and tools on demand greatly increases the reliability and safety of space missions while also dropping the cost by orders of magnitude. The first printers will start by building test items, such as computer component boards, and will then build a broad range of parts, such as tools and science equipment." Made in Space previously partnered with NASA through the agency's Flight Opportunities Program to test its prototype 3-D Print additive manufacturing equipment on suborbital simulated microgravity flights. NASA's Flight Opportunities Program offers businesses and researchers

NASA C-9B Zero-G aircraft. Image credit: NASA

the ability to fly new technologies to the edge of space and back for testing before launching them into the harsh space environment. For this mission, Made in Space was awarded a Phase III small business innovation and research contract from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. After flight certification, NASA plans to ship 3-D Print to the space station aboard an American commercial resupply mission. NASA is working with American industry to develop commercially-provided U.S. spacecraft and launch vehicles for delivery of cargo -- and eventually crew -- to the International Space Station. For more information about Made in Space, visit: http://www.madeinspace.us, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate leads the agency's participation in the president's National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The directorate's Game Changing Development program leads the agency's efforts in 3-D printing. For more information about the directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech, Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA. Greetings, Source: Orbiter.ch Space News

Read More........→June 03, 2013