Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: sustainability – Page 137

AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the City of Austin works toward reducing its carbon footprint, city officials are working to expand programs and infrastructure to help make electric vehicle technology more accessible citywide.

Amy Atchley, senior lead with Austin Energy’s EV equity program, spoke Tuesday at MOVE America 2023, a mobility conference held in downtown Austin. Atchley’s presentation centered around providing EV access to underserved community members, particularly as the city moves toward a 2040 goal of net zero carbon emissions.

With that goal in mind, she noted transportation is the leading emitter of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In order to achieve that benchmark, she said the city must have at least 40% of its vehicle miles traveled done via electric vehicle technology by 2030.

Read more | >

Tesla’s vehicles come with various unique features, including the ability to use the mobile app to perform several different functions remotely. In a repost of another account pointing to the ability to set cabin temperature remotely, Tesla highlighted that preconditioning will also warm up the vehicle’s battery, helping to optimize range and overall performance.

On Wednesday morning, Tesla reposted a @WholeMarsBlog post on X describing the ability to pre-set cabin temperature remotely using the mobile app when it’s hot outside, meaning owners will “never get into a car that’s too hot or too cold again.”

Tesla piggybacked on the concept, pointing out that when users remotely precondition their cars during the winter, their batteries will also be warmed to the ideal temperature to improve vehicle performance.

Read more | >

Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun.

In a paper appearing in the journal Joule, the team outlines the design for a new solar desalination system that takes in saltwater and heats it with natural sunlight.

The configuration of the device allows water to circulate in swirling eddies, in a manner similar to the much larger “thermohaline” circulation of the ocean. This circulation, combined with the sun’s heat, drives water to evaporate, leaving salt behind. The resulting water vapor can then be condensed and collected as pure, . In the meantime, the leftover salt continues to circulate through and out of the device, rather than accumulating and clogging the system.

Read more | >

Water is still an issue around the world.

Engineers at MIT and China have jointly developed a solar-powered system that extracts fresh water from seawater so efficiently it is “cheaper than tap water,” says one of the researchers who invented the system. The inventors say the system could provide clean drinking water sustainably to off-grid coastal communities and families living near a sea water source.

From MIT News:

The configuration of the device allows water to circulate in swirling eddies, in a manner similar to the much larger “thermohaline” circulation of the ocean. This circulation, combined with the sun’s heat, drives water to evaporate, leaving salt behind. The resulting water vapor can then be condensed and collected as pure, drinkable water. In the meantime, the leftover salt continues to circulate through and out of the device, rather than accumulating and clogging the system.

Continue reading “New solar device makes desalinated seawater cheaper than tap water” | >

Areas of New York City are sinking while others are rising at varying rates due to both natural and man-made factors.

One of the key indicators of climate change is the rise in sea levels at a global scale, with recent rates being unprecedented in the last 2,500 years. In an exciting study published yesterday, 27 September, NASA-based scientists found that some areas of New York City are sinking while others are rising at varying rates due to natural and man-made factors.

Interesting Engineering had reported earlier on a similar study, which said that New York is sinking due to a natural phenomenon called subsidence, where heavy objects, like buildings, gradually settle over time or when… More.

Shuo Guo/iStock.

Continue reading “New York is simultaneously sinking and rising, but why?” | >

Tesla has broken ground on the site of its planned futuristic diner with a drive-in theater and Supercharger station.

Yes, it sounds like that crazy project is actually happening.

This project has been in the works for a long time. In 2018, Elon Musk said that Tesla planned to open an “old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in Los Angeles.” It was yet another “Is he joking?” kind of Elon Musk idea, but he wasn’t kidding.

Read more | >

The process not only shortens the time required for recycling but also reduces secondary waste streams.

The world is expected to experience a surge in battery demand as it moves to renewable energy sources. And, with the development of sustainable energy technologies, there will be a subsequent increase in the demand for precious metals used in batteries. Many of the materials used in such batteries, like lithium-ion batteries, are not available in abundance, and the best way to meet this need is to recycle old batteries.

To aid in this mission, a team of researchers at Rice University in the United States of America has developed a new recycling process that helps salvage more than 98 percent… More.

Petmal/iStock.

Continue reading “This method recycles 98% of metals from batteries in 20 mins” | >

Most of today’s EVs use lithium-ion batteries, the same kind you’ll find in your smartphone or laptop. These batteries all have two electrodes (one positive and one negative), and the negative one is usually made of graphite.

While the battery is being charged, the lithium ions flow from the side of the battery with the positive electrode to the side with the negative electrode. If the charging happens too fast, the flow can be disrupted, causing the battery to short circuit.

StoreDot’s EV battery replaces the graphite electrode with one made from nanoparticles based on the chemical element germanium — this allows the ions to flow more smoothly and quickly, enabling a faster charge.

Read more | >

University of Washington researchers are rolling out another tiny robotic breakthrough, this time in the form of an autonomous device that relies on surrounding light or radio waves to move in short bursts.

The robot, dubbed MilliMobile, is about the size of a penny and weighs as much as a raisin, and a typical power source, such as a battery, has been kicked to the curb in favor of more environmentally friendly approach.

MilliMobile has a solar panel-like energy harvester that sits above four tiny wheels, enabling the robot to roll — in incremental steps — about the 30 feet in an hour across surfaces such as concrete or packed soil.

Read more | >

With the rapid-paced rise of AI in everyday life, nothing, not even the traditional farmer, is untouched by the technology.

A survey of the latest generation of farm tools provides a taste of just how far modern farming has come.

The Ecorobotix, a seven-foot-wide GPS-assisted “table on wheels” as some have described it, is a solar battery-powered unit that roams crop fields and destroys weeds with pinpoint precision. It boasts a 95% efficiency rate, with virtually no waste.

Read more | >