Archive for the ‘Green Technology’ Category
The Wonder of Green Technology
“Modern technology, owes ecology, an apology” is an old saying. In the case of the new technology in building homes, this proverb seems to be false. Those energy and resource efficient green homes built in Austin are real gifts from modern technology to the environment. Green Homes have become a buzz word in Austin and with technological innovation leading to more energy savings, green technology is making progress towards becoming synonymous with ecology.
Breathe Easy
Many green homes are built using toxin-free building materials like bamboo or straw inorder to combat indoor air pollution, which is much worse than outdoor air pollution. Unhealthy air inside a room is capable of causing serious health problems like cancer and respiratory ailments like asthma. The non-toxic building materials used, include paints without volatile organic compounds and toxin-free insulation materials made from soybeans. This means that you can breathe fresh, non-toxic air.
Energy Dependency
The demand for Green Homes has steadily increased nowadays as they attempt to totally eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health. These green homes take advantage of renewable natural resources, where possible. These green homes reduces our dependence on conventional energy sources as they generate energy from alternate energy sources such as sun, wind, geo-thermal energy and bio-mass for their energy needs. Moreover water conserving irrigation systems help green homes use 50% less water than standard homes. Water conservation such as this has become very important with many places experiencing less rainfall and longer more intense dry weather conditions.
Green Homes, Cost-Efficient Too
The net cost of owning and operating a green home is usually far cheaper than owning a standard home. Upfront costs may be higher because most of the architects and home builders don’t have the knowledge and experience to build green homes as efficiently as standard homes. However, people living in these green homes save money month by month, as many green homes use 30% less water and 30% less energy than standard homes. Over the years these moderate savings, add up to BIG savings. Green Homes will also keep you healthier, which means, fewer expensive doctor visits and fewer days missed to work.
Regarding design, green homes can be every bit as welcoming, cozy, and spacious as non-green homes. Additionally, there are a wide range of designs available from which to choose when selecting your green home. You can go modern, traditional, neo-classical or for the adventurous even go geodesic dome style. The trend in going green in Austin has grown rapidly. With more and more builders, architects, and contractors learning about Green Homes your choices in a healthy, efficient, and green home are growing!
SO, what are you waiting for? Get your own Green Home and hold the keys for a greener and healthier tomorrow.
The Wonder of Green Technology
“Modern technology, owes ecology, an apology” is an old saying. In the case of the new technology in building homes, this proverb seems to be false. Those energy and resource efficient green homes built in Austin are real gifts from modern technology to the environment. Green Homes have become a buzz word in Austin and with technological innovation leading to more energy savings, green technology is making progress towards becoming synonymous with ecology.
Breathe Easy
Many green homes are built using toxin-free building materials like bamboo or straw inorder to combat indoor air pollution, which is much worse than outdoor air pollution. Unhealthy air inside a room is capable of causing serious health problems like cancer and respiratory ailments like asthma. The non-toxic building materials used, include paints without volatile organic compounds and toxin-free insulation materials made from soybeans. This means that you can breathe fresh, non-toxic air.
Energy Dependency
The demand for Green Homes has steadily increased nowadays as they attempt to totally eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health. These green homes take advantage of renewable natural resources, where possible. These green homes reduces our dependence on conventional energy sources as they generate energy from alternate energy sources such as sun, wind, geo-thermal energy and bio-mass for their energy needs. Moreover water conserving irrigation systems help green homes use 50% less water than standard homes. Water conservation such as this has become very important with many places experiencing less rainfall and longer more intense dry weather conditions.
Green Homes, Cost-Efficient Too
The net cost of owning and operating a green home is usually far cheaper than owning a standard home. Upfront costs may be higher because most of the architects and home builders don’t have the knowledge and experience to build green homes as efficiently as standard homes. However, people living in these green homes save money month by month, as many green homes use 30% less water and 30% less energy than standard homes. Over the years these moderate savings, add up to BIG savings. Green Homes will also keep you healthier, which means, fewer expensive doctor visits and fewer days missed to work.
Regarding design, green homes can be every bit as welcoming, cozy, and spacious as non-green homes. Additionally, there are a wide range of designs available from which to choose when selecting your green home. You can go modern, traditional, neo-classical or for the adventurous even go geodesic dome style. The trend in going green in Austin has grown rapidly. With more and more builders, architects, and contractors learning about Green Homes your choices in a healthy, efficient, and green home are growing!
SO, what are you waiting for? Get your own Green Home and hold the keys for a greener and healthier tomorrow.
Pyrolysis is an Emerging Green Technology
is an emerging technology and its green credentials when the feed is biomass are top notch. Everyone who has lit a wood or coal fire and watched it burn has seen pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is usually the first chemical reaction that occurs in the burning of many solid organic fuels, like wood, cloth, and paper, and also of some kinds of plastic.
In a wood fire, the visible flames are not due to combustion of the wood itself, but rather of the gases released by its pyrolysis; whereas the flame-less burning of embers is the combustion of the solid residue (charcoal) left behind by it.
Although the basic concepts of the process have been validated, the performance data for an emerging technology have not been evaluated according to methods approved by EPA and adhering to EPA quality assurance/quality control standards.
Waste is converted to a fuel by heating the waste which burns just as coal or wood does under the right controlled conditions. Whereas incineration fully converts the input waste into energy and ash, these processes limit the conversion so that combustion does not take place directly.
Waste Plastic under pressure and catalytic cracking produces fuel and can be used as a fuel source. Under certain temperature conditions the plastic macromolecular chains are broken down into small molecular chains (simple hydrocarbon compounds) and those small molecular compounds contain C4 to C20, this compound is a component of petrol, coal oil, and diesel.
Anhydrous pyrolysis can also be used to produce liquid fuel similar to diesel from solid biomass.
Fast pyrolysis occurs in a time of a few seconds or less. Therefore, not only chemical reaction kinetics but also heat and mass transfer processes, as well as phase transition phenomena, play important roles. Fast pyrolysis is a process in which organic materials are rapidly heated to 450 – 600 degrees C in absence of air. Under these conditions, organic vapors, permanent gases and charcoal are produced.
Researchers at Virginia Tech have identified pyrolysis as a potential technology for disposing of poultry litter. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop transportable pyrolysis units to process the waste from poultry growers within one locality, thus reducing transportation cost. Researchers believe that the char, an inert and highly porous material, plays a key role in helping soil retain water and nutrients, and in sustaining microorganisms that maintain soil fertility. Researchers have obtained from wood – initially beech and then coniferous species – oils with almost ideal characteristics. Straw, which has a lower energy yield – 50% as opposed to 70% for wood – is also due to be analysed in the near future.
Bill Gates’ personal investment vehicle, is reportedly backing Sapphire Energy, a start up working towards a commercial-scale facility to produce oil from algae, but we think he would do well to look at gasification and pyrolysis as his energy technology because there are so many possibilities in this technology.
