Shanghai-based Sancon Resources Recovery Inc. is a fast growing environmental services firm with operations in Australia and China. In 2007, the firm reportedly sold more than 25,000 tons of industrial waste – largely derived from plastic, cardboard and paper – to China’s ever-growing manufacturing market. Now Sancon has announced that it will develop glass-powder raw materials made from the recycled…
Read MoreResearchers at the University of the West of England say they have developed an automatic system for detecting surface defects invisible to the naked eye in ceramic tiles. Their system can detect pinholes, crazing, rough or dull glazes and other imperfections – even on tiles that are textured or feature relief patterns – the researchers say.…
Read MoreCan asphalt roads and parking lots be used as a ubiquitous and inexpensive means for collecting and utilizing solar energy? Researchers at Massachusetts’ Worcester Polytechnic Institute say: Yes. Led by Rajib Mallick, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, a WPI research team says it has found a way to use asphalt’s heat-absorbing properties as…
Read MoreWe came across two very different stories about passive methods that can produce cleaner air – methods developed centuries apart. First, in a test that may lead to a breakthrough in the reduction of air pollution, the town of Hengelo in the Dutch province of Overijssel is paving one of its roads with concrete brick…
Read MoreAccording to a new report from BCC Research the global market for thin film in energy applications is expected to increase from $1.1 billion in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2008 and $3.9 billion by 2013, for a compound annual growth rate of 23.5 percent. The report divides the market into application segments for photovoltaics,…
Read MoreEvery year, concrete accounts for more than five percent of human-created, pollution-causing carbon dioxide emissions, reports Technology Review, an online news source published by MIT. Most of these emissions are created because cement – the active ingredient in concrete – requires limestone and clay powders to be baked at extremely high temperatures, usually generated by…
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This week’s video comes courtesy of PPG. It demonstrates modern techniques of making large sheets of flat glass that has a smooth surface – something that perplexed glass-makers for centuries. The first advances in automating glass manufacturing were patented in 1848 by Henry Bessemer, (of steel-making fame), who developed a steelmill-like, but very expensive process…
Read MoreDishes and cookware made from a newly developed ceramic material may soon enable faster and more energy-efficient microwaving, according to Sridhar Komarneni, a professor of clay mineralogy at Penn State University. Komarneni reports on the new material’s development in the July 11, 2008, online edition of Chemistry of Materials. “Currently, food heated in a microwave loses…
Read MoreIt seems like there is a breakthrough a week in the realm of lower-cost catalysts for producing hydrogen. The latest news comes from Ohio State University, where researchers are using a $1.1 million grant to develop alternatives to pricey rare and precious metallic catalysts like platinum and rhodium. With these metals selling for thousands of…
Read MoreWriters at the IEEE Spectrum report that molecule-size memory may be possible using graphene. Electrons flow extremely fast in graphene, much faster than in silicon, and a graphene transistor could really zip. That’s been the good news. The bad news, until now however, is that it’s hard to stop current from flowing in graphene once…
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