by: TEDTalks (video), 2010-11-25 15:16:28 UTC
In this funny and insightful talk from TEDxHouston, builder Dan Phillips tours us through a dozen homes he's built in Texas using recycled and reclaimed materials in wildly creative ways. Brilliant, low-tech design details will refresh your own creative drive.
Eco Factor: Technology promises better fuel consumption by converting engine exhaust into electricity.
Researchers at Purdue University are creating a system that harvests heat from an engine’s exhaust to generate electricity, reducing a car’s fuel consumption. The research is being funded with a $1.4 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Purdue team is collaborating with General Motors, which is developing a prototype using thermoelectric generators, or TEGs. The TEGs generate an electric current to charge batteries and power a car’s electrical systems, reducing the engine’s workload and improving fuel economy. The prototype, to be installed in the exhaust system behind the catalytic converter, will harvest heat from gases that are about 700 degrees Celsius.
While current thermoelectric technology cannot withstand the temperatures inside catalytic converters, where gases are about 1,000 degrees Celsius, researchers are now working on new thermoelectrics capable of withstanding such high temperatures, a step that would enable greater fuel savings.
The first prototype aims to reduce fuel consumption by 5 percent, and future systems capable of working at higher temperatures could make possible a 10 percent reduction.
Eco Factor: Low-cost fuel cells developed by replacing platinum with cheaper materials.
Researchers at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created all-ceramic thin-film solid-oxide fuel cells that don’t contain any platinum. If the development could make its way into production, the world could be seeing fuel cells that use more abundant and less expensive fuels and materials.
Traditionally SOFCs need platinum-coated electrodes, which can be both expensive and unreliable. The all-ceramic fuel cells are most cost effective and can be used as a reliable power source. The Harvard team has also created a micro-SOFC that draws its power from methane rather than hydrogen.
Traditionally, hydrogen has been the medium of choice for SOFCs, but methane is more abundant, cheaper and needs less processing. The micro-SOFC developed by the team has an operating temperature of less than 500 degrees Celsius, which conventionally is about 800 degrees Celsius. The research team wants to even reduce the operating temperature to about 300C, at which the cells can be used in transportation vehicles.
Look at that! It’s a clever bag for carrying home all your newly purchase clothing you got this excellent shopping season. It’s an upside-down hanger, it looks nice, it’s got some great color to it. But what’s this? Is this… yes! It’s detachable, and I can use it to hang my clothing up! What a good little bag you’ve been. I will not recycle you. Have fun, use your products always! Add this to your file of “best packages basically ever.”
This project goes by the name “Get the Hang of It” and it’s designed by DEDE DextrousDesign. You’ll see a couple more designs by the same people in the future (or if this post has been up for some time, in the past!) Carry me home, cleverly designed bag, carry me all the way home.
Yanko Design Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Yanko Design Store - We are about more than just concepts. See what's hot at the YD Store!
by: Design Observer: Main Posts, 2010-11-22 14:36:01 UTC
The Green Patriot Posters project looked to the graphic design and artistic communities for ways to invigorate and mobilize people to remake our economy for a more sustainable future.
Traditionally what designers lack in knowledge, they make up for in craft skills. Whether it be sketching, modeling, detailing or rendering, designers take an inordinate amount of pride in honing key techniques over many years. Unfortunately many of these very skills have limited use in the new design domains. (Core 77 columnist Kevin McCullagh.)
I am forced to read a lot of crap. As a reviewer of submissions to design journals and conferences, as a juror of design contests, and as a mentor and advisor to design students and faculty, I read outrageous claims made by designers who have little understanding of the complexity of the problems they are attempting to solve or of the standards of evidence required to make claims. Oftentimes the crap comes from brilliant and talented people, with good ideas and wonderful instantiations of physical products, concepts, or simulations. The crap is in the claims.
In the early days of industrial design, the work was primarily focused upon physical products. Today, however, designers work on organizational structure and social problems, on interaction, service, and experience design. Many problems involve complex social and political issues. As a result, designers have become applied behavioral scientists, but they are woefully undereducated for the task. Designers often fail to understand the complexity of the issues and the depth of knowledge already known. They claim that fresh eyes can produce novel solutions, but then they wonder why these solutions are seldom implemented, or if implemented, why they fail. Fresh eyes can indeed produce insightful results, but the eyes must also be educated and knowledgeable. Designers often lack the requisite understanding. Design schools do not train students about these complex issues, about the interlocking complexities of human and social behavior, about the behavioral sciences, technology, and business. There is little or no training in science, the scientific method, and experimental design.
Eco Factor: Silica from desert sand to be used to make solar panels for renewable energy.
A team of Japanese scientists have come up with an ingenious proposal to provide 50 percent of the world’s energy needs by utilizing sand from the Sahara desert. Christened “The Sahara Solar Breeder Project,” the plan calls for the development of silicon-manufacturing plants that will be powered by the sun and will further breed more plants for more power.
According to statistics, the sun delivers 10,000 times more energy to the Earth than the current requirements, which means that even if we harness 0.01 percent of it, it would create a surplus. The plan is to use desert sand to make a substance that provides energy, which will be the key to solving the energy problem. While technology to convert silica into silicon for solar panels doesn’t exist, the researchers are confident that it is definitely doable.
The research is starting this year and will require an expenditure of 100 million yen annually for five years. The initial aim of the research team is to build a solar plant with an annual capacity of at least 100GW, which would truly help to solve the world’s energy problems.
by: TreeHugger Transportation, 2010-11-24 18:57:39 UTC
Image: Nissan
Tactile Feedback FTW
Nissan's ECO Pedal is a great idea. We've known for a while that giving drivers some feedback on their fuel consumption helps them drive more efficiently (and more sanely!). The most obvious example is the LCD screen in the Toyota Prius, but there are other ways of providing that feedback. Ford has an instrument cluster that grows leaves to 'reward' you for effici... Read the full story on TreeHugger
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-19 08:51:56 UTC
Lush sells vintage fabric to Knot-Wrapping their products, which are sold, in most cases, unpacked.
Knot-wrap scarves can then be re-used again and ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-19 08:19:46 UTC
You can cut wasted standby power switching off TVs and connected appliances at the power source (and back on again) with your remote control and the ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-17 02:31:49 UTC
The Sonic TC unit uses a revolutionary new technology to replace the x-ray testing technology in structural testing of metal products. Were the old ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-16 03:10:41 UTC
Two billion times a day, somebody, somewhere, uses a Unilever brand. That is a great opportunity to have impact on the sustainability of the products ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-15 02:52:11 UTC
Sky is an alternative energy streetlamp employing photovoltaic cells. The lamp is designed for external use. The cells are located in the upper part ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-10 03:43:30 UTC
By intervening in the natural cycle with an extra step, an added value is created, extending the decaying process of leaves before returning to the ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-09 06:06:17 UTC
PVs convert sunlight into electricity that can be used immediately. The process is clean, fast, noiseless, and—thanks to Solio—easily portable. ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-08 02:45:38 UTC
The Ecopod is a beautiful design of coffin that brings together artisan skills with style, elegance and a respect for the environment.
Made by hand ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-05 01:48:01 UTC
The heart of the Pano System is the Pano Device, a whole new class of desktop computing hardware. Pano Devices are referred to as "zero clients" because ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2010-11-04 02:57:50 UTC
softseating is made from heavy weight versions of the same kraft paper and textile materials used in softwall + softblock modular system. Each element ...
Image: Nissan
Tactile Feedback FTW
Nissan's
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