Science & Technology - Sep 1, 2010 15:18 - 2 Comments

It’s rocket science: Wastewater treatment

STANFORD (US)—Engineers are developing a new sewage treatment process that would actually increase the production of two greenhouse gases—nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas) and methane—to be used to power the treatment plant. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Aug 30, 2010 12:54 - 0 Comments

Soot hits Arctic ice with double whammy

STANFORD (US)—The quickest and best way to slow the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice is to reduce soot emissions from the burning of fossil fuel, wood, and dung, according to a new study. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jul 1, 2010 12:07 - 1 Comment

Is black carbon a climate change quick-fix?

U. ILLINOIS (US)—One immediate way to reduce the current levels of global warming—and avert rapid climate change—researchers say, would be to focus on pollutants with short atmospheric lifetimes, like soot, also known as black carbon. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jun 9, 2010 15:08 - 0 Comments

Using supercomputers to clean up coal

STANFORD / U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US)—Pollution control devices known as scrubbers, installed to restrict the amount of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide release from coal-fired power plants, may have helped to reduce acid rain, but they haven’t made those plants safe. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jun 8, 2010 12:49 - 10 Comments

Ditch the car. Drive a Weng

STANFORD (US)—In a matter of weeks, Stanford University graduate students have built an electric car they hope will make daily travel more environmentally friendly, efficient, and fun. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jun 2, 2010 11:38 - 1 Comment

How to debug solar panel design

MICHIGAN STATE (US)—Solar power might be nature’s most plentiful and benign source of energy, but shiny black solar cells can lure water insects away from critical breeding areas. (more…)

Earth & Environment - May 11, 2010 15:17 - 0 Comments

Stressors choking life out of NY rivers

SYRACUSE U. (US)—More than one-third of the 90-kilometer length of Central New York’s Three Rivers system failed to meet the state’s water quality oxygen standard in a recent study. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Mar 16, 2010 11:58 - 2 Comments

Cell phone designers should think trash

U. ILLINOIS (US)—Out of the millions of cell phones retired each year only a small fraction—less than 5 percent—are recovered, which means that most end up in a landfill. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 22, 2010 18:08 - 0 Comments

Skiers go down, moguls migrate up

U. COLORADO (US)—Gravity always wins, one might think. Avalanches roar and skiers plunge inexorably downhill. But moguls—or bumps, as skiers know them—move uphill. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Feb 16, 2010 11:42 - 0 Comments

Giving roads a green grade

U. WASHINGTON (US)—A new rating system does for road construction what the Energy Star system does for appliances—provides a sustainability performance metric for new and reconstructed or rehabilitated projects. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 9, 2010 10:54 - 6 Comments

Smallest solar-powered sensor never quits

U. MICHIGAN (US)—A 9-cubic millimeter solar-powered sensor system developed at the University of Michigan is the smallest that can harvest energy from its surroundings to operate nearly perpetually. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jan 13, 2010 17:38 - 0 Comments

Stirring up question of PCBs

U. IOWA—The Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and scientists are unsure whether planned dredging in the next few years will help or hurt the situation. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jan 12, 2010 12:07 - 4 Comments

Track climate change with tennis balls

U. WASHINGTON—Measuring snowmelt is as easy—and economical—as launching a tennis ball into a tree. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jan 7, 2010 16:43 - 8 Comments

Pulling the plug on hybrid myths

U. CHICAGO—What’s the real deal with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles? Vehicle systems engineer Forrest Jehlik from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory would like to dispel some commonly held myths. (more…)

Science & Technology - Dec 24, 2009 13:23 - 3 Comments

Wireless smart sensors inspect bridge

U. ILLINOIS (US)—An inexpensive wireless system designed to continuously—and reliably—monitor structural health has been successfully deployed at full scale on the Jindo Bridge in South Korea. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Oct 23, 2009 11:41 - 0 Comments

Predicting power outages before the storm

JOHNS HOPKINS/TEXAS A&M (US)—Using data from Hurricane Katrina and four other storms, researchers have created new computer models to help utilities better forecast hurricane-caused power outages in advance. (more…)

Science & Technology - Sep 16, 2009 19:55 - 3 Comments

‘Tendons’ bring building in line after big quake

Schematic diagram of the rocking frame set up for shake-table testing. The steel-braced frame is shown in red. The white structure behind the frame simulates the weight of a three-story building. The inset shows the replaceable steel fuse, in yellow, at the base of the rocking frame. Behind and in front of the fuse are the vertical steel cables that pull the building back into plumb after an earthquake. During testing, the frame was sandwiched between two of the white structures. (Credit: Xiang Ma/Stanford)

Science & Technology - Sep 2, 2009 12:05 - 0 Comments

‘Smart’ pipes call for help

Engineers Pai Chou (pictured), Masanobu Shinozuka, and colleagues are developing a water pipe monitoring system that features GPS tracking, fail-safe wireless communication, and video cameras such as the one shown.

Posts Tagged ‘environmental engineering’