Archive for 'Sustainability'
links for 2010-09-06
Posted on 06. Sep, 2010 by DailyDelicious.
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Despatching 1MW of predictable power at a water velocity of 2.65m/s, the AK1000™ is capable of generating enough electricity for over 1000 homes. It is designed for harsh weather and rough, open ocean environments such as those found off the Scottish coast. The turbine incorporates cutting edge technology from suppliers across the globe, has an 18 meter rotor diameter, weighs 1300 tonnes and stands at a height of 22.5 meters. The giant turbine is expected to be environmentally benign due to a low rotation speed whilst in operation and will deliver predictable, sustainable power to the local Orkney grid.
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What does it take to make one A4 size paper?
Posted on 09. Jan, 2010 by Krishnan.
We start off by doing a small calculation from a reputed text book. The text book is Shreve’s Chemical Process Industries, which is a textbook adopted in the chemical engineering curriculum of many reputed colleges.
An A4 size office paper of normal quality weighs 5 grams. It is easy for one to pro-rate the above table and estimate what it takes to make 5 grams of paper.
Based on 1982 data, to make an A4 paper you would need:
- 22.5 g Chemicals
- 665 ml Water
- 3.5 ml Oil or 5 grams of coal
- 20 cc Wood
- 23.76 kJ Power
Well, the story does not stop here. I know that the paper industry has adopted better manufacturing methods and today the specific consumption for making paper could be a little different. Today’s processes use significant amounts of recycle paper, use lesser water. Again, the amount of paper recycled and water conserved in different plants /countries is different, so it becomes difficult to establish an exact global average in a brief article.
Nevertheless, a few parallels can be drawn.
Every time you waste an A4 paper at office, conservatively, I can assume that, you also waste a large cup of water, a spoon full of coal (or oil), another spoonful of various chemicals, energy sufficient to keep a 40 W bulb glowing for 10 minutes and wood whose weight could be 2-4 times the weight of the paper, depending on the amount of recycle paper used.
Every time you throw a piece of paper into a dust bin, imagine yourself wasting all the other resources as well. I’m sure you’ll find it a lot easier to save paper.
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Energy ball – Interesting design for a microgeneration device
Posted on 17. Aug, 2009 by Krishnan.
Microgeneration is small scale distributed power generation where each home, community makes its own power with a low carbon footprint. It is said that if we all make our own power, we can take off 30-40% of production capacity. As an idea, microgeneration sure makes sense. If households dont rely on the government to cook their foods, mow the lawns and take out the trash, why should they rely on the government to produce their power?
Energy ball is an interesting device thats been around for over 2-3 years now and can supposedly produce 15% of the annual power required by a (Dutch) household. The ball has a 25 year life and can produce a maximum of 500 W of power. It looks kind of cool too, to say the least, I like it better than the look of a power plant.
The cost of a 500 W ball installation without the post is around 3000 Euros (Rs.210,000). The 11 m mast costs another 1000 euros. Based on the present Indian economics, the device is not likely to pay itself back even over its entire lifetime without subsidies. I just wonder what makes such interesting devices so expensive.
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