Background Zinc has been used in battery manufacture for a long time. What is new are the advances made recently at City University of New York, rendering achievement of high efficiency yet at an affordable price tag for zinc batteries. The innovation has many other benefits, including, recycling of materials and waste energy recovery, besides reducing environmental pollution through better auto efficiency. Zinc a re-known component in batteries Carbon-zinc battery schematic Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/battery.html This carbon-zinc battery was invented in 1866 and has for long met the requirements for small batteries through much of the twentieth century. It is the oxidation at the zinc electrode or anode that is responsible for the induced voltage between the output terminals, in what is called an electrochemical cell. Used batteries largely disposed of in past Many users across the world have used such batteries extensively to meet small energy needs, in radios, small electronic appliances and a host of other usually small equipment. The main undoing has often been the throwing away of units that are exhausted. This meant no recovery, without prospective saving from material recoveries and environmental pollution due to cumulative waste. Innovations from City University of New York (CUNY) Research efforts at CUNY have developed a new low cost, high efficiency zinc battery that promises to impact on energy storage systems greatly. This work is reported in Clean Technica by Tina Casey on August 9th 2013, under the title ‘ARPA-E Advanced Battery To Be Made In West Harlem, NYC’, see link http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/09/arpa-e-advanced-battery-to-be-made-in-west-harlem-nyc/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29 . New Zinc battery setup Source: Link above Through the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency code-named ARPA-E, with funding of over $1.5 million in state economic development resources and another $500,000 in tax credits to be based on job creation, a prototype is now available, courtesy of US Department of Energy. Earlier on, research and development had attracted US $ 3 million to CUNY Energy Institute, intended to develop it to grid-scale commercial production. These outcomes come at a time when disparities between generation and consumption patterns are becoming a growing concern, given the rate at which the likes of wind and solar PV are constantly inching up their share of grid supply. Recycling of materials This is novel from a number of perspectives. First, recycling alleviates the problem of accumulating waste, not to mention the prospect of recovery of ‘dead’ stocks. Secondly, this should bring down the cost of materials. Although some are cheap, abundant and non-toxic, it provides long term security of availability, contributing to fully rechargeable batteries. As for zinc, it is reported fully recyclable. Prototype configuration It is reported that the prototype is made up of 36 interconnected flow-assisted cells, having the novel objectives: Other improvements Amongst these, on the basis of present findings, are: In summary A number of technologies and schemes are in the offing to improve battery storage of energy. These developments are coming in at an opportune time, with increasing need as renewable assume higher levels grid supply share. While many seem burdened with various disadvantages such as low efficiency as for compressed air, the zinc battery development has multiple potential benefits. Call to action Let us make the effort to keep increasing exploitation of renewable energies. Join us at the Empower Network where I promise to share my thoughts on energy with you! You can also have a ‘One-on-One’ with me, to give your comments on this exciting subject, discuss, and also engage me in discussing technical issues on paulsagala3@gmail.com. Transform your life, Visit http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=paulsagala 
Background This article is a continuation on this author’s interpretation of Warren Weisman’s ideas, as presented in the immediately preceding one. In the first one, we presented a summary of his ideas, our interpretation and possible implications. In this one we would like to touch on specific contents in the context of present developments. Modes of travel When restricted to small commuting distances, travel can be covered well through human power. This would take the forms of walking, cycling, or in the extreme driving an electric car or one powered by hydrogen or biofuels. Walking In the great interest of health, we should walk as often as possible, covering moderate distances that are deemed commensurate with our health and age status. This could be brisk, tantamount to exercising for good health. If one has to cover a round trip of a couple of miles or so, there is really no need for a bicycle or car. This is sufficient to travel to office, go to markets or other destination, if no heavy baggage is involved. For those in better health, this could be converted into jogging, a vital exercise for the body. Cycling This is an extension of travelling on bodily energy alone, a good substitute to walking if distances are not much longer and terrain not prohibitive, need to move a reasonable weight, or simply enjoying an evening ride for exercise or whenever. Today, many in the big cities commute to work on bikes, being more than adequate especially when distances are limited. Electric bike These are coming in to make the cycling task easier and adaptable to longer journeys or having a rider of advanced age. These are invariably supplemented with conventional pedals. These are easily recharges at home or even workplace. Electric car Solely electric car are also becoming fashionable, with prospect of charging both in public locations and at home. These provide an alternative modality of travel adaptable to all weather, also suitable for advanced age members of our society. Recently, we cited the European Union project to make this a meaningful reality in future. Use solar We have seen that solar is now applicable to a multiplicity of uses in a home or small business. Solar now is more constrained by one’s financial ability, not area of applicability. Modern societies have gone to the extent of selling it to the grid, while poorer countries are using it largely for lighting, and increasingly for battery charging in kiosks. In more open areas, the sky is really the limit. It is only one’s financial resources that may limit its use. Exploit wind Although not easily available to all, prospects do exist, where homes or their clusters can take advantage of this potential. Like our ancestors exploited it for running water pumps and mills, it can still be done today, with several improvements and advances at our doorsteps. Hydrogen fuel cells We recently cited a new method of splitting water, with the hydrogen accessible at a more attractive cost. That reference mentioned a small water vessel I recall in a city in UK. Cars have already been powered by fuel cells, and, the sky is probably the limit in small transport applications. Biogas The more spacious home settings are ideal for production of biogas. Agricultural residues and a lot of domestic waste have been used very successfully, not to mention human waste. For those will ill-feelings about using human excreta, the zero-grazed animals provided a very acceptable solution. While the use of biogas is within the reach of many poor communities, their induction into it seems lacking in many parts, especially in Africa. Even some where it has been introduced, mechanisms of its continued use need to devised and implemented. Combined heat and power This concept has been responsible for raising efficiency of energy recovery in internal combustion engines, where what would be lost in substantial heat waste is recovered for useful purposes. This scheme is working particularly well where there is need for heating in winters. Many others who use additional heating for water could take advantage of this, in the tropics for instance. Gasification This technology has been around, and found use in many countries. This however is still not much used in many poor countries, yet it offers great potential for conversion of energy into a more portable form. Insulate homes well The world at large is moving pretty fast in reducing heat losses to the environment in the very cold periods. This has indeed brought down heating costs, tantamount to big annual savings in the very cold periods for countries far from the tropics. Tropical countries are blessed by nature, often requiring neither heating nor cooling, a feature that largely ensures survival in the low-level energy use patterns existing there. Substitute fossil fuels, coal and natural gas As a last opportunity, this adaptation to renewable energies is rightly keenly eyed to replace the polluting and depletable lot, especially in coal and fossil fuels in general. Call to action Let us make the effort to keep increasing exploitation of renewable energies. Join us at the Empower Network where I promise to share my thoughts on energy with you! You can also have a ‘One-on-One’ with me, to give your comments on this exciting subject, discuss, and also engage me in discussing technical issues on paulsagala3@gmail.com. Transform your life, Visit http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=paulsagala
Background With the many cleaner energies available, people have started to chart possible ways of community settings that could fit in well with tested technologies. In the broad thinking of Warren Weisman, a compact community could do with less to no driving and instead walk and cycle, use solar, wind and hydrogen fuel cells, beside others like biogas and use combined heat and power for meeting our energy needs. Warren Weisman’s ideals A long practitioner in the biogas industry, he lays down his very radical thoughts in his article titled ‘Energy Infrastructure of the Post-Carbon Future’ that appeared in the Energy Collective, August 3rd 2013, under link http://theenergycollective.com/warren-weisman/256796/energy-infrastructure-post-carbon-future. His article lays out a plan as to how a mid-rise city could use the renewable energy forms to meet all the needs of energy in the community. As a quick reference, the proposal sites the following: This article is very good reading, although pretty difficult to implement on account of the following: Implications We can see that society has the capacity to mitigate many of the world’s energy implications. A model of that kind is necessary for an urban setting in a cosmopolitan location. There can be more realizable models in rural settings, especially in countries that do not have winter. Given a more sparse population distribution, there is a lot of room for implementation at lower cost. If one has a garden, they can easily generate biogas, power generators using the gas, cook with it, recycle waste, use fertilizers and greatly reduce dependence on outside supplies. With a few zero-grazed animals and a well insulated house, heating can be met from on-farm supplies. In the lesser energy intensive settings as in much of tropical Africa, all energy needs could be met from biogas for cooking and possibly lighting, leaving a small demand from say wind, all coming in at not so prohibitive costs. These prospects are realities that are waiting at our horizons for implementation. They can be implemented in phases, allowing for gradual capital outlay in absence of attractive credit facilities and/or subsidies. This article will be continued to expand and/or interpret Warren Weisman’s ideas. Call to action Let us make the effort to keep increasing exploitation of renewable energies. Join us at the Empower Network where I promise to share my thoughts on energy with you! You can also have a ‘One-on-One’ with me, to give your comments on this exciting subject, discuss, and also engage me in discussing technical issues on paulsagala3@gmail.com. Transform your life, Visit http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=paulsagala
Background Sustenance of agriculture has required the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers from fossil fuels in the past for many plants. However, if the breakthrough at University of Nottingham finds its way to the commercial market, all this may change in a few years. Growing population puts pressure on demands in life The world’s population, already estimated around the 7-billion people mark, is placing demands on several aspects in life. Many aspects are affected by the sheer increase in human numbers populating the world. These include growth in food demand, water, low food productivity, food processing and attendant energy needs, not to mention pollution implications. More people also imply higher production of life necessities, an insinuation for even more energy, more pollution and greater environmental degradation needs. Some are briefly discussed hereinafter. Food demand More people mean need for more food, water, farm land and better agricultural practices. The agricultural practices in many parts of the world have not measured to growing demands for food production, even meeting local needs for many countries. Instead, many once self-reliant areas of food supply depend more on food aid. The poor agricultural practices include failure to replant replacements for what we eat, which on the contrary should be way beyond projected local needs for food security and export prospects. The practices in good land maintenance have not been adhered to, leading to losing arable land to growing deserts, results of which have been increasing low land productivity trends. Water demand Both agriculture and humans add to the requirements for water supply. One worry already on hand has been the ever-falling water table levels for many parts in the world, adding to fears of scarcity. A case in point is South Africa, where such parameters have already resulted in water supply for Pretoria and Johannesburg coming from mountainous Lesotho. Low food productivity That the quality of the land is often falling, its productivity is also affected. This yields to lower yields, a potential recipe for hunger. Use of fertilizers therefore has been used in part as a remedy to this predicament. This then leads to the considerations of prospective sources for the same, some natural, other artificial from fossil fuels. Food processing and attendant energy needs Growing numbers across the globe along with urbanization mean that foods need to be processed, packed and transported to destinations near and far. All the above activities in the chain require energy, thereby calling for more and more energy for the purpose. Pollution implications As is the case today, quite a substantial portion of energy sources used for the purpose have high carbon footprints. More people therefore mean more food needs and probably much higher energy implications across the farm, processing and delivery chain, hence higher pollution potential. Fertilizers essential Modern farming has come to rely heavily on fertilizers for improved yields. In their absence, we have seen many of the poor countries threatened with the prospect of eminent inability to feed their populace, even in absence of wars. The world has used some from both non-fossil sources, but later moved on to those from petroleum bases to supply the growing demand. The fossil-sourced ones have quite a number of implications, in particular, contributing to depletion of a finite energy resource, but probably more important, a pollution implication. Novel breakthrough technology Following the long research efforts at Nottingham University in UK, Professor Ted Cocking’s work published in Clean Technica on August 3rd 2013 announces a breakthrough, under the title ‘Breakthrough Technology Enables Crops To Take Nitrogen From The Air — Effective Means To Replace Nitrogen Fertilizers Developed’, that is destined to provide relief to the world at large. A brief of this work can be accessed via http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/03/crops-nitrogen-fixing-from-air/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29. Professor Ted Cocking – with some of plants in a laboratory The new discovery identified bacteria that can be introduced through coating to seeds, to enable them ‘fix the nitrogen’ direct from the air like a few other families like legumes. Implications of this work include: Energy implications From our perspective, we can recognize multiple benefits. First the reduction in demand for fossil fuels will reduce, probably noticeably on account of a growing world population and implied need for food. Secondly, the pollution will correspondingly on account of this alone. We can already see the European annual estimate of a staggering sum in billions above. Adding to the efforts directed at reducing the carbon footprint from the energy sources alone, this dimension will contribute handsomely to our efforts at an early realization of global weather goals, assuming others go according to consensus plans. Call to action Let us make the effort to keep increasing exploitation of renewable energies. Join us at the Empower Network where I promise to share my thoughts on energy with you! You can also have a ‘One-on-One’ with me, to give your comments on this exciting subject, discuss, and also engage me in discussing technical issues on paulsagala3@gmail.com. Transform your life, Visit http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=paulsagala
Image Credit: University of Nottingham
Background There are very strong indications that desirable energies – renewable ones – are on a steady growth path. Only recently, we blogged about the academia advocating for low-rise buildings in order to possibly meet substantial proportions of city energy needs from solar. This is not to mention the impact wind is having on the global scene. Now, despite the coming of cheaper natural gas on the US market, the clean energies are projected to double in a decade. Wind We have seen wind get boosts, in terms of growth, although investments declined in 2012, down by 10-percent to US $ 80.3 billion. Installations however grew sharply as costs fell. US growth up to 2009 Looking at US alone, we see that this has been on-going for some time. As the chart below shows, annual growth has been significant with increasing annual rates in years subsequent to 2005 up to 2009. Solar Solar on the other hand has also been on a steady growth path, with US $ 140.4 billion in 2012, representing a fall of 11-percent from 2011. As was the case with wind, lower cost of technologies translated into high growth rates, despite the fall in investment. Solar PV installed capacity saw a growth of a staggering 41-percent in 2012, reaching a staggering 1oo gigawatts (GW). This spiraling growth has been phenomenal over some time, with a 900-percent growth from 10 GW in 2007. These statistics are highlighted in www.globalsources.com website, under the title ‘Renewable Energy Alert: Growth of Global Solar and Wind Energy Continues to Outpace Other Technologies’ under link http://www.investorideas.com/news/2013/renewable-energy/07301.asp . This article also highlights the following, and I quote: Clean energy to double by 2022 Against the above background, only a small fraction of the underlying stock of developments, Meg Handley speculates on this matter, see article under the title ‘Report: Clean Energy Sector Poised to Double by 2022’ under the link http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/03/13/report-clean-energy-sector-poised-to-double-by-2022. The article goes on to add that this is so despite the increasing availability of low-cost natural gas in US today. In addition, Clean Edge, an energy research and advisory firm, projected that clean-energy revenue was to double to US $ 426 billion by 2022, with solar, wind and biofuels around US $ 249 billion in 2012, also cited in the same article. In winding up Judging from the above, the tide has indeed changed in favor of clean energy sources. Times of considering these as non-starters must remain in history. Despite the arrival of low-priced natural gas on the US market, it is still believed that the clean energy sources are going to continue to grow unabated. That said, the effect of oil pricing becomes a significant factor in making this clean energy speculation a greater potential reality, not to mention its finite resource influence. We have seen even the oil producing majors opting to also not be left behind in the acquisition of renewable technologies, an inevitable trend in light of the fear of what could happen should their golden resources dry up. Call to action Let us make the effort to keep increasing exploitation of renewable energies. Join us at the Empower Network where I promise to share my thoughts on energy with you! You can also have a ‘One-on-One’ with me, to give your comments on this exciting subject, discuss, and also engage me in discussing technical issues on paulsagala3@gmail.com. Transform your life, Visit http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=paulsagala 
