Have you ever thought of how much water is being used in making products? Here are some examples:

Including water used to grow the ingredients, it takes:
8 gallons of water to make a cup of tea.
20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer.
85 – 130 gallons of water to make a two liter bottle of Coca-Cola.
505 gallons of water to make a pair of stonewashed Levi’s 501 jeans.
700 gallons of water to produce a cotton T-shirt.
35 gallons of water to make a cup of coffee
-or-
5,500 gallons of water to produce two pounds of roasted coffee.
630 gallons of water to produce a hamburger. The bulk is used to grow grain for cattle feed.

Two-thirds of the world’s population is projected to face water scarcity by 2025, according to the United Nations. In the U.S., water managers in 36 states anticipate shortages by 2013, a General Accounting Office report shows. (more…)

Merging Seawater Greenhouses and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

Since the 1980’s, rainfall has increased in several regions, while drying has been observed in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa, Australia and parts of Asia.

In his report for the Fourth World Conference on the Future of Science “Food and Water for Life” held in Venice last September, Charlie Paton put it this way: The Sahara Forest Project aims to provide a new source of fresh water, food and renewable energy in hot, arid regions, as well as providing conditions that enable re-vegetating areas of desert. (more…)

OK, environmentally concerned restaurant people, listen up! Been pulling your hair out over what to do with all that used vegetable oil you accumulate every day? Knowing it’s most likely being disposed of in landfills or wastewater treatment plants. Well cheer up Baldy, because here’s a solution invented just for you (well, and the planet).

The Vegawatt system uses waste vegetable oil from any food service operation as a fuel to generate on-site electricity and hot water, saving the restaurant thousands of dollars as well as providing a clean, renewable source of energy.

A Vegawatt system contains more than just power generation equipment. (more…)

New Concept Could Harness the Power of Ocean Waves

NASA researchers who developed a new way to power robotic underwater vehicles believe a spin-off technology could help convert ocean energy into electrical energy on a much larger scale. The researchers hope that clean, renewable energy produced from the motion of the ocean and rivers could potentially meet an important part of the world’s demand for electricity.

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Lilly pads have wide disc shaped leaves that float lightly on the water like a pontoon boat, form beautifully following function, allowing them to gather sunlight all day without fighting for space like their landlocked cousins. The water intensifies the sunlight that is gathered up by the leaves, which slowly rotate to match the motion of the sun as it arcs across the sky. So not surprisingly, lilly pads were the inspiration behind the innovative design by the Scottish architecture firm ZM Architecture in a brilliant proposal to provide solar power to the city of Glasgow, Scotland.

Ranging in size from 15 ft to 45 ft in diameter, so even on cloudy days these giant floating solar cells would take advantage of the open space of the River Clyde in Glasgow, to generate energy for the city while also stimulating urban riverfront activity. (more…)

The trash you throw away today may just turn into your future home, if the concept behind the Bitublock takes off. Designed by engineer John Forth, of the University of Leeds in England, the blocks are produced with a mixture of waste materials, including crushed glass, pulverized fuel ash, incinerated sewage, steel slag, and other waste products that would normally wind up in landfills or, worse, wherever they happen to be discarded. Further, less energy is required to make the Bitublocks than is needed for concrete. These products are bound together by bitumen, (a byproduct of crude oil distillation used widely in road construction), before compacting it in a mould to form a solid block. (more…)

Researchers at the Australian National University are working with a new Australian company, Spark Solar Australia and Braggone Oy on a three-year project to develop spray-on solar panels that are both cheap and highly efficient.

Traditionally, solar cells are made of silicon coated with a thin layer of anti-reflective silicon nitrate. The cells are expensive to produce because they are made in a vacuum and creating a vacuum like situation doesn’t come cheap. If this step can be skipped from the solar cell production, price tags can be brought down considerably. The new method uses a spray-on hydrogen film and spray-on anti-reflective film. In this spray-on method vacuums are not needed. The cells travel along a conveyor belt where the films are sprayed on. The simplified process could trim down about $5 million in capital equipment costs per medium-sized factory. The manufacturer can save and produce solar cells at a much cheaper rate. Testing of the process is now taking place at the ANU, and the technology should be available toward the end of 2011. (more…)