Solar Ball (Portable solar device creates potable water)

By harnessing the power of the sun, a Monash University graduate has designed a simple, sustainable and affordable water-purification device, which has the potential to help eradicate disease and save lives.

The Solarball, developed as Mr Jonathan Liow’s final year project during his Bachelor of Industrial Design, can produce up to three litres of clean water every day.

The spherical unit absorbs sunlight and causes dirty water contained inside to evaporate.

As evaporation occurs, contaminants are separated from the water, generating drinkable condensation. The condensation is collected and stored ready for drinking.

Liow’s design was driven by a need to help the 900 million people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water.

Over two million children die annually from preventable causes,triggered,largely by contaminated water. It is an increasing problem in developing nations due to rapid urbanisation and population growth.

‘After visiting Cambodia in 2008, and seeing the immense lack of everyday products we take for granted, I was inspired to use my design skills to help others,’ Mr Liow said.

Mr Liow’s simple but effective design is user-friendly and durable, with a weather-resistant construction, making it well suited to people in hot, wet, tropical climates with limited access to resources.

‘The challenge was coming up with a way to make the device more efficient than other products available ,without making it too complicated, expensive, or technical,’ Mr Liow said.

Mr Liow, and a working prototype of his Solarball, was featured on ABC1’s ‘The New Inventors’. The product has been named as a finalist in the 2011 Australian Design Awards - James Dyson Award.

It will also be exhibited at the Milan International Design Fair (Salone Internazionale del Mobile) in April 2011.

via:physorg

Dung Electricity

A massive biogas facility will turn manure from dairy farms into electricity and fertilizer.

Technology for capturing biogas and putting it to use has existed for a long time. In its simplest form, an enclosed digester allows the anaerobic organisms to break down manure and capture the methane produced. The gas is then

siphoned off in a pipe for cooking or lighting. The Chinese government estimates that millions of small farms already have such primitive manure digesters.

But Huishan Dairy in northeast China is trying to change this by installing the world's largest system for generating electricity by collecting methane gas emitted by fermenting cow manure.

Huishan's new system will prevent methane—which is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas—from reaching the atmosphere. It will also reduce waste and odors, and produce a valuable organic fertilizer that's safer than raw manure.

The operation at Huishan is 10 times the size of the typical systems for generating electricity from cow manure. Its massive scale could help make the project more economical. GE, which is supplying the project's gas-powered generators, also hopes it will act as a showcase for the technology. Methane is not widely harnessed in

farming worldwide, largely due to the initial costs, a lack of established economic models, and little government support.

Huishan's new electricity generating system will process the waste from 60,000 cows and produce 5.6 megawatts of power. It will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 3,500 American-size households, which means it will service many more Chinese ones, which use far less energy.

What was previously the largest system for generating electricity from manure produced two megawatts. Most such systems still produce only a few hundred kilowatts. Huishan will capture 20 million cubic meters of biogas (which is about 60 percent methane).

sources via: technology review , peak energy , silobreaker , new fuelist

Rowheel Wheelchair

Wheelchairs have a basic problem because the occupant must push the

wheels forward to turn the chair’s wheels, but this action is physically stressful on the anterior deltoid muscles

in the shoulder and the triceps and flexor carpi muscles in the arms. Using these smaller and relati

vely weak muscles can result in muscle and joint pain and degredation, torn rotor cuffs, repetitive stress injury, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Now a new wheelchair, the Rowheel System, uses the much more natural pulling (rowing) motion to move the chair forward.

Using a pulling motion transfers the loads to the stronger muscles of the upper b

a

ck, the biceps in the arms, and posterior deltoids in the shoulders, which increases the occupant’s range and endurance and reduces the chance of stress injuries.

The system, invented by Salim Nasser of Merritt Island, Florida, uses a planetary gear system in the center of the wheels that converts the pulling movement of the wh

eelchair occupant into a forward movement of the chair. The planet carrier motion is attached to the chair frame and a ring gear is attached to the wheel hub fixed in the wheel via spokes. When the occupant pulls the standard rim, which is connected to the planetary system sun gear, the planet gears are engaged, and they in turn engage the ring gear fixed to the wheel hub. The bearings fixed to the inner and outer hub plates have a large bore and small cross-section to allow relative motion between the plates and the hub casings.

Nasser developed the wheelchair design as a university project during his time as a student at the Florida International University. Over a four-month period he constructed a working prototype from standard third-party tires, spokes, rims and bearings. The gear system and hubs were specially constructed.

The Rowheel system can be fitted to any standard manual wheelchair without mod

ifications to the frame, and is easy and quick to dismantle for wheelchair portability. It looks similar to standard manual wheelchairs. Nasser said a commercial version would use a carbon fiber material for the hub, spoke and wheel rim assembly for lower weight and ease of assembly and dismantling.

The design won Nasser the $20,000 grand prize in the Create the Future Design Contest run by the publishers of the NASA Tech Briefs magazine. The annual contest attracts around a thousand product designs from over 50 countries.

Nasser is now a NASA engineer working at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He is a wheelchair user himself, and like 75 percent of people using wheelchairs, relies on a manual wheelchair.

sources via: ideaconnection , physorg , medgadget ,gizmag