tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47975886887002678962024-03-13T06:35:00.879-07:00Much Ado About WaterA blog that deals with this maverick but very useful natural compound that we call water.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-21617570984925334602020-07-03T03:29:00.002-07:002020-07-03T03:29:55.881-07:00Testing Sewage For Coronavirus: Faster And Better Than Current Medical Tests?<br />
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Could a sewage-based coronavirus test provide faster and
better results than existing medical tests?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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Current rapid coronavirus antibody tests recently got a bad
rap after providing a lot of false-positive results, but could testing a city
or community’s sewer system for the COVID 19 virus provide faster and more accurate
results? Scientists led by UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are working on
a standardized test to “count” the amount of coronavirus in a wastewater
sample. The test could pick up COVID 19 infection spikes up to 10 days earlier
than with existing medical based tests. Newcastle University’s Prof. David
Graham and his colleagues have now developed a way to quantify the genetic
material from the coronavirus. </div>
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Early in the COVID 19 pandemic, research revealed that
people infected with the virus “shed” viral material in their feces. That
insight prompted an interest in “sewage epidemiology”. A similar test used by
Chinese epidemiologists working with Italian health authorities during the
spring of 2020 produced test results showing that coronavirus could already had
been present in Italy near the end of December 2019. The researchers want to
fine tune and reproduce this test before it can be rolled out as part of a
COVID 19 alert system.</div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-13095059227021123352020-07-03T02:22:00.000-07:002020-07-03T02:22:55.840-07:00Clean Drinking Water: Vital In Halting The Spread Of COVID 19?<br />
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Given the WHO and the US CDC’s hand-washing guidelines are
somewhat “water-intensive”, is clean drinking water vital in stopping the
spread of COVID 19?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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Given that you have to sing Happy Birthday twice while
washing your hands with soap and water – the now recommended length of time
required to lower one’s chances of catching COVID 19 to an absolute minimum,
the global pandemic that have paused modern life raised concern whenever when
it will hit places where clean drinking water is not widely available. The
world’s various health organizations have waited in trepidation on how COVID 19
might spread in the poorer parts of Africa and other parts of the world lacking
in readily available clean water, not just for drinking, but for washing one’s
hands. Add to that a lack of personal protective equipment to the medical doctors
and related health workers in these places, it could be the proverbial “perfect
storm” when it comes to the spreading of the COVID 19 virus. </div>
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Thankfully, at the moment, COVID 19 spread in parts of the
world where clean drinking water is a rarity were not as bad as that of the
spread of the virus in the world’s major metropolitan areas during the spring
of 2020. Maybe it might just be due to sheer luck that the clean water deprived
parts of the world has not become a corona-virus hotspot for now at least. But
the medical charities currently operating in these places are bolstering local
clean drinking water supplies in order to nip an emerging COVID 19 infection in
the bud.</div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-55699906048190745552019-03-26T03:50:00.000-07:002019-03-26T03:50:14.613-07:00Is England Running Out Of Water?<div class="MsoNormal">
With a dire warning from the UK’s chief executive of the
Environment Agency, will England run out of water during the next 25 years?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones</div>
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Although he offered relatively easy manageable steps to avert
such a crisis if the UK’s citizens act now, UK’s chief executive of the
Environmental Agency Sir James Bevan had issued a warning that the country is
facing the “jaws of death” – a term often used to define the point where water
demand from the country’s rising population could soon surpass the falling
supply resulting from climate change and according to Bevan, this could happen
within the next 25 years. However, this so-called “water crisis” could be
avoided with ambitious action to cut people’s water use by a third and leakage
from water pipes by 50-percent, he says, along with big new reservoirs, more
desalination plants and transfers of water across the country. </div>
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In his speech six days ago, Bevan says: “Water companies all
identify the same thing as their biggest operating risk: climate change.” By
2040, more than half of our summers are expected to be hotter than the 2003
heatwave, he says, leading to more water shortages and potentially 50 to
80-percent less water in some rivers in the summer. Quite a dire warning indeed
given that the last time the UK’s water shortage got worldwide attention was
back in 1959 when a drought in Speyside, Scotland triggered a “minor emergency”
when the streams that gave Scotch Whiskey its distinctive flavor dried up. </div>
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The UK’s projected water shortage is actually caused by
projected population growth as it is expected to rise from 67-million to
75-million in 2050, increasing the demand for water. But Bevan says the average
person’s daily use of 140 liters could be cut to 100 liters in 20 years by more
efficient use in homes and gardens. Currently, about a third of water is loss
to leaks or wastage. Although, the most controversial change needed to increase
supply is building new mega-reservoirs, such as that proposed near Abingdon in
Oxfordshire. This was deemed controversial because according to Bevan: “We have
not built a new reservoir in the UK for decades, largely because clearing all
the planning and legal hurdles necessary is so difficult and local opposition
so fierce”. </div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-88756017506400168462019-01-12T09:06:00.000-08:002019-01-12T09:06:42.056-08:00CanOWater: Natural Spring Water in Aluminum Cans?<div class="MsoNormal">
Given the environmental concerns on
the widespread use of single-use plastic bottles, are aluminum cans the ideal
packaging of natural spring water on the go?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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According to environmental experts,
if current trends continue, as in 8 million metric tons of plastic ending up in
our oceans each year, there would be more single-use plastic wastes in our
oceans than fish by weight in the year 2050. Would replacing single-use plastic
with a more “recyclable” material be the way to go? “Aluminum cans have the
highest recycling rate of any product out there and a recycled can could be
back on the shelf as another one in just 60 days,” said Ariel Booker,
co-founder of CanO Water. The company was founded by three friends – Ariel Booker,
Perry Alexander Fielding and Josh White, all are under the age of 25 when they
started back in February 17, 2017. </div>
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There is little doubt that during
the past few years that aluminum has outpaced plastics in terms of recycling.
As of June 2018, 73.6-percent of all use beverage package recycling in the EU,
Switzerland, Norway and Iceland are of aluminum cans, and the rate in Germany
and Finland is 99-percent. Given its widespread recyclability, is aluminum cans
the ideal container for drinking water on the go? </div>
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Unfortunately, I still have doubts
whether the resulting environmental impact of reducing the amount of plastic
entering our oceans annually will be transferred to the increased carbon
footprint in the transport of CanO Water given that aluminum is several times
heavier than the PET plastic competition. And given my experience with
industrial polymers from high-school chemistry, I too have doubts on how many
times we can recycle / reprocess PET plastic bottles with reasonable economic
viability and environmental impact. Maybe CanO Water is environmentally
friendly in the long run but given that the product has only been widely
marketed during the last quarter of 2018, only time will tell if the aluminum
can packaging of CanO Water will prove more environmentally friendly than the
PET plastic bottle competition. </div>
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Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-56788530127947937502018-01-22T01:00:00.000-08:002018-01-22T01:00:49.760-08:00Cape Town, South Africa: The First Major City To Run Out Of Water? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Given that the surrounding regions had experienced its most
severe drought in living memory for about three years now; will Cape Town be
the first major city to run out of water by Earth Day 2018? </div>
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<br /></div>
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By: Ringo Bones</div>
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With draconian water rationing measures has since been
enforced since 2017 due to the region experiencing its worst ever drought in
more than a century, it looks like Cape Town, South Africa which, at present,
is suffering from severe municipal water supply shortage, could be the first
major city ever in living memory to run out of water. At present, Cape Town’s
water supply is sourced from six dams which are now currently at dangerously
low levels and policymakers in charge of the city’s water supply warns that by
April 22, 2018 – Cape Town could completely run out of its drinking water
supply. </div>
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<br /></div>
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In a recent BBC interview back in January 17, 2018, Cape
Town’s mayor Patricia DeLille had criticized Cape Town residents for their
selfishness in not following measures in conserving water for their daily domestic
use despite of the severe water shortage plaguing the city. At present, the
level Cape Town’s dams now stands at 28-percent which is critically low for its
day to day function. And experts say that the so-called “Day Zero” will be
reached once the levels of Cape Town’s dams reach 13-percent and this could
happen by Sunday, April 22, 2018, which happens to be this year’s Earth Day –
which is quite ironic indeed. </div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-90808658667591014022017-04-23T12:32:00.000-07:002017-04-23T12:32:36.458-07:00Graphene: The Secret To Low Energy Desalination?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Given that current desalination technologies cost millions
of dollars and huge energy input to run it, will the newfangled graphene-based
desalination devices drastically cut costs and energy consumption? </div>
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<br /></div>
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By: Ringo Bones</div>
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According to the United Nations, it is expected by the year
2025 14-percent of the world’s population will encounter water scarcity. Given
that the current “most energy efficient” way to desalinate water – i.e. reverse
osmosis desalination plants – still costs hundreds of millions of dollars to
build and their energy requirements is beyond that of a remote small town in
sub-Saharan Africa to generate. Fortunately, a new wonder material, like graphene,
could drastically slash the energy and cost requirements to build a
desalination plant big enough to provide potable water to a typical out of the
way small town. </div>
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Graphene-oxide membranes have attracted considerable
attention as promising candidates for new filtration technologies, especially
ones that are less expensive and require lower energy to operate than existing
ones. Now the much sought-after development of making membranes capable of
sieving common salts has been achieved. New research demonstrates the
real-world potential of providing clean drinking water for millions of people who
struggle to access adequate clean water sources. </div>
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When common salts are dissolved in water, they always form a
“shell” of water molecules around the salt’s molecular structure. This allows
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flowing along with the water. Water molecules are able to pass through the
membrane barrier and flow anomalously fast which is ideal for application of
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Professor Rahul Nair at the University of Manchester said “Realisation
of scalable membranes with uniform pore size down to atomic scale is a
significant step forward and will open new possibilities for improving the
efficiency of desalination technology”. Prof. Nair’s experimental desalination
device at the National Graphene Institute of Manchester uses a one-atom thick graphene
filter. </div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-17465851164346346242016-05-16T02:29:00.000-07:002016-05-16T02:29:17.710-07:00Water Lens: Using Water To Purify Water? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Even though the concept is as zany as a Saturday Morning
Cartoon premise, but can one use water to purify water making it safe to drink?<br />
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By: Ringo Bones</div>
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Two years ago, a Civil Engineering sophomore at the
University of Buffalo named Deshawn Henry managed to use one of those zany
Saturday Morning Cartoon premise as a working principle behind his device that
uses water to purify water making it safe for everyone to drink. And best of
all, the method is by far the most inexpensive way so far to provide constant
supply of clean drinking water to over a billion people who still don’t have
access to it. Unsafe drinking water results in the death of children below five
years of age every minute, but Deshawn Henry’s invention could soon reduce childhood
mortality due to a lack of access to clean drinking water. </div>
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The device itself has a rather humble appearance, with a
six-foot-tall frame of 2-by-4 pieces of lumber topped with a lens constructed
of plastic sheeting and water which focuses down onto a treatment container for
the water. The simplicity of the design and the inexpensive nature of the
building materials mean that many living in impoverished areas would be able to
obtain the technology and provide clean water for their families. Once
operational, Henry’s Water Lens can eliminate up to 99.9-percent of pathogens
in a liter of water in about an hour by magnifying sunlight and heating a liter
of water to about 130 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. All in all, given the
promising initial results of being able to purify water using relatively low
cost materials, Henry’s Water Lens is not bad for a “mere” summer project. </div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-39137585942477866562016-03-06T04:14:00.000-08:002016-03-06T04:14:09.294-08:00March 21 International Day of Forests: Environmentalism’s Watershed Moment? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Though we already have a lot of “red letter days”
commemorating our embattled environment, is the March 21 International Day of
Forests the most important of them all especially when it comes to securing a
constant supply of safe drinking water?<br />
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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While Earth Hour may have succeeded in its intended
environmental mission – i.e. crude oil prices had fallen 70-percent since 2014 –
it seems that deforestation seems still like the most ignored issue of our
embattled environment. South East Asian palm oil farms had been slashing and
burning primeval forests / old-growth forests as if they’re growing out of
fashion since the last decade of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, it only has been
relatively recently that the powers-that-be at the United Nations finally
established a resolution to combat the increasing rate of global deforestation.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The 21<sup>st</sup> day of March which was designated as The
International Day of Forests was established by resolution of the United
Nations General Assembly on November 28, 2014. Each year since then, various
events celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests
and trees outside forests for the benefit of current and future generations.
Countries are encouraged to undertake efforts to organize local, national and
international activities involving forests and trees such as tree planting
campaigns on March 21 – the International Day of Forests. The Secretariat of
the United Nations Forum on Forests in collaboration with the Food and
Agricultural Organization, facilitates the implementation of such events in
collaboration with governments, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests and
international, regional and subregional organizations. International Day of
Forests was observed for the very first time on March 21, 2013. </div>
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The catalyst for a “Forest Day” that lead to the establishment
of the International Year of Forests started as a casual conversation between two
scientists in Oxford, England back in February 2007 who felt that world at
large was underestimating the importance of forests in mitigating carbon
dioxide emissions and saw a growing need for the latest forestry research and
thinking to inform global policy makers and the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties negotiators. The two Oxford
scientists did not foresee the conference would become one of the most
influential global events on forests and climate change today. </div>
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Each year since the 1970s, more than 13 million hectares or
32 million acres of forests are lost – an area roughly the size of England. As
the forests vanishes so too are the plant and animal species that they embrace which
make up 80 percent of all terrestrial biodiversity. Most importantly, forests
play a critical role in mitigating the worst effects of climate change including
global warming. Deforestation results in 12 to 18 percent of the world’s carbon
dioxide emissions – almost equal to the carbon dioxide emissions of the entire
global transportation sector. Equally crucial, healthy forests are one of the
world’s primary carbon sinks. Today, forests cover more than 30 percent of the
world’s land and contain more than 60,000 tree species many of them as yet
unidentified and yet to be cataloged by the world’s botanical science
community. Forests also provide food, fiber, clean drinking water and medicines
for approximately 1.6 billion of the world’s poorest people who earn less than
1 US dollars a day – including indigenous peoples with unique cultures. And it
has been scientifically proven for decades that rainfall tends to fall on
forests and forests are currently the most cost effective way of purifying
water in comparison to other man-made means. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-2373478263341285102016-01-31T08:07:00.000-08:002016-01-31T08:07:55.875-08:00Coal Seam Gas Extraction: Number One Cause of Groundwater Contamination? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Despite its scientifically proven low-carbon credentials, is
coal seam gas extraction far from environmentally friendly due to its tendency
to cause groundwater contamination?<br />
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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The energy firm Santos in New South Wales, Australia was
picketed back in January 28, 2016 by local farmers due to its coal seam gas
extraction schemes contaminating the local farmland’s groundwater source, but
the energy firm’s “environmental impact” was already a concern almost two years
ago. Back in March 24, 2014, leaks of water containing high levels of
radioactive uranium from coal seam gas wastewater pond operated by energy firm
Santos in New South Wales put the spotlight yet again on an industry already
wracked by controversy. Most concerns over coal seam gas have to date focused
on “fracking” – fracturing deep rock strata to get gas in coal seams – but as
the incident shows, waste produced by coal seam gas wells and brought to the
surface is another major environmental issue. </div>
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According to the New South Wales Environmental Protection
Authority, the March 2014 incident resulted in the contamination of the
groundwater aquifer downstream of the leak that tested 20 times the acceptable
levels of uranium for drinking water. This is concerning given the long
timescales and effort involved in groundwater clean-up and the fact that the
region affected is an area of recharge for the Great Artesian Basin. </div>
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The type of wastewater that resulted in groundwater
contamination in this incident – called “produced” or “co-produced” water – is generated
in large quantities by all coal seam gas wells and it is usually of poor
quality, containing potentially harmful levels of salts, radionuclides, metals
and other contaminants. It appears that in this case such water was
inappropriately stored in a leaky dam, allowing it to infiltrate and migrate
into the underlying aquifer. </div>
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The only viable way to rectify this is to use reverse
osmosis to remove the contaminants and release the treated water into local
streams but the method can be potentially cost prohibitive in some situations.
Some contaminants – such as boron – are harder to remove and are retained in
the treated coal seam gas extraction produced water. In some cases, methane can
also remain in the water after it leaves the treatment plant, adding concerns
of “fugitive emissions” given that methane is 20 times more potent than carbon
dioxide as a greenhouse gas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this
methane in the water has resulted in scores of sensational videos uploaded to
You Tube where homeowners’ tap water catching fire after a lit match is brought
close to a turned on faucet highlighting the environmental concerns of
fracking. </div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-18691914943077546342015-08-22T09:49:00.000-07:002015-08-22T09:49:33.890-07:00Teri Dankovich’s Drinkable Book: Reliable Safe Drinking Water For The World’s Poorest? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Will Terry Dankovich’s “Drinkable Book” finally solve the
reliability problem of safe drinking water supply for the world’s poorest
citizens?<br />
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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By last count, as many as 358-million people in sub-Saharan
Africa do not have a reliable access to safe clean drinking water. The good
news is researchers have just come up with a book on water safety whose very
pages can be used to filter water to make it safe to drink. Results of the
trials done in 25 contaminated water sites in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Haiti
and Bangladesh showed that the said book, which contains tiny particles of copper
and silver, could eliminate over 99-percent of disease-causing bacteria as
stated in the results of the project unveiled at the American Chemical Society’s
national meeting that began back in August 16, 2015. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Teri Dankovich, from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, who has
been leading the research on what she calls “The Drinkable Book”, said in one
trial that they tested a ditch contaminated with sewage that contained millions
of disease-causing bacteria. Dankovich said: “even if highly contaminated water
sources like the one we tested, we can achieve 99.9-percent purity with our
silver-and-copper nanoparticle paper, bringing bacteria levels down comparable
to those found in United States’ tap water”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Each paper of the pages in the Drinkable Book is embedded
with silver and copper nanoparticles. The pages contain instructions in English
and the local language the book is destined to. Water is poured and filtered
through the pages themselves. One page can purify up to 100 liters – about 26
gallons – of water and one book can supply one person’s drinking water needs
for about 4 years, the researchers said. The researchers currently make the
books themselves – but are now looking to ramp up production and send the books
to local communities. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-74215768642100904322014-11-04T04:27:00.000-08:002014-11-04T04:27:16.618-08:00Microwave Heated Water: Deleterious To Houseplants? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Even though this curious assumption went viral once
microwave ovens became a common household appliance, is microwave heated water
deleterious to houseplants? </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By: Ringo Bones </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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It is important to point out that water heated to a
temperature of 70 to 100 degrees Celsius by whatever means – gas range electric
oven, induction oven, microwave oven, etc. can kill any plant-life if poured at
them at that temperature, this topic deals with the idea that water heated with
a microwave oven to its boiling point can have a deleterious effect on
houseplants after the microwave heated water is allowed to cool to ambient room
temperature then used to water houseplants. Anyone with a working knowledge of
homeopathy, the Peter W. Belt effect of polarized water in high fidelity audio
and Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphic Resonance Theory will probably be very curious
of the idea that microwave heated water having deleterious effects on
houseplants whether or not their “preconceived science” behind their
explanation of the phenomena seems suspect from the viewpoint of current
mainstream science, they would, nonetheless, try this in a well-controlled
experiment if their busy schedules will allow. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Fortunately for those who might not have time to perform
such a well-controlled science experiment first hand in order to find out if microwave
heated water has a deleterious effect on household plants if used to water at
them after it has cooled down to ambient room temperature, an episode of
Mythbusters had performed such experiment and – inexplicably – the plants
watered by microwave heated water has shown the most growth, Mythbusters’ Adam
and Jamie were at a loss to explain their results and only suggested their fans
to perform the same experiment to find out whether or not their results match
theirs. Based on the Mythbusters’ experiment, Is microwave heated water be
healthier for houseplants than either ordinary tap water and rainwater? </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in 2007, a Microwave heating system intended to be
installed in the ballast tanks of bulk cargo ships and crude oil tankers to
kill invasive organisms lurking in their ballast tank’s water that could have
ecologically disastrous effects on the ships’ various ports-of-call became one
of the years top inventions. Since the end of World War II, scientists have
known that an average 250 ml. glass of tap water contains about 250-million bacteria
and other microorganisms, could using microwaves to heat tap water then cooling
it down to ambient room temperature to water it to houseplants be a healthier
option to your houseplants because your microwave oven might have killed
deleterious microorganisms present in tap water that could hinder the health
and well being of your houseplants? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To those with a “quirky phobia” with microwave radiation
might beg to differ, their concerns over the deleterious effects of microwave
radiation on living things does have “scientific credibility”. Even though the
jury is still out on the link between deleterious health effects on urban
dwellers on our current ambient microwave radiation exposure standards, everyone
in the United States got neurotic on this very issue during the late 1980s and
early 1990s when they found out that the then Soviet Union – once the socialist
states’ occupational microwave radiation exposure standards became accessible
by the West – has a more stringent microwave exposure guidelines in comparison
to late 1980s era United States' OSHA microwave radiation exposure guidelines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-8090203549562754552014-06-04T07:31:00.001-07:002014-06-04T07:31:41.196-07:00Pseudomonas Syringae: Mother Nature’s Cloud Seeding Agents? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Even though the Bergeron-Findeisen theory of rain had been
the widely accepted working principle on what causes rainfalls, is there
another yet to be discovered mechanism behind precipitation? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By: Ringo Bones </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though this microorganism’s role in how rains form has just
been discovered relatively recently, it may provide an explanation on why a
rainforest or other regions on our planet is an inexplicable magnet for
rainfall. Microbiologists and climatologists had just relatively recently found
out that the microorganism Pseudomonas syringae that tends to hover above
rainforests and other places with dense patches of vegetation has a protein
structure that allows water vapor in the atmosphere to freeze just above zero
degrees Celsius. The microorganisms themselves act as the nucleating agents
that allow rain to form out of atmospheric water vapor that will trigger a
rainfall if enough of them coalesce and the Earth’s gravity will do the rest. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The working principle behind how rains form has been
discovered by Swedish meteorologist Tor Bergeron in his white paper published
back in 1935 proposing the astonishing theory that most rain begins as snow in
the colder parts of the upper atmosphere. This theory was later elaborated by
German physicist Walter Findeisen and is now widely accepted as the
Bergeron-Findeisen theory of rain which is the working principle behind how
rains form and artificial cloud-seeding. Dust blown up into the upper parts of
our atmosphere where clouds form, ultrafine dry ice, silver iodide crystals,
and even common table salt had been used in artificial cloud seeding with
varying degrees of success. Now we can add Pseudomonas syringae to that list. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recent studies have shown that Pseudomonas syringae is a
more potent nucleating agent for rain formation than dust or ultrafine solid
carbon dioxide, silver iodide crystals and table salt. The microorganism has
also been employed for awhile now as an ice or snow making bacteria to lower the
operating costs of snow machines during the Yuletide season in places that
normally don’t get snowfall during that time of the year. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pseudomonas syringae is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative
bacterium with polar flagella. Despite its desirable rainmaking and snowmaking
properties Pseudomonas syringae is a potent plant pathogen. As a plant
pathogen, it can infect a wide range of species and exists as over 50 pathovars
seen as bacterial speck in tomatoes. Ice nucleation induced by Pseudomonas
syringae that earned it the nickname the “rainmaking” or “snowmaking” bacteria
– depending on the local prevailing atmospheric ambient temperature. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-21151758080906606422013-04-09T23:40:00.000-07:002013-04-09T23:40:14.411-07:00Low Cost Fresh Water From Icebergs?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Even though plans to extract from one dates back to the
1950s, can Antarctic icebergs ever be a viable source of low cost fresh water? </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By: Ringo Bones </div>
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<br /></div>
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Young Turks these days may have only heard of the scheme
from a 2012 Dassault Systèmes advert often aired on the BBC but believe it or
not, the idea of obtaining low cost fresh water from icebergs dates as far back
as the 1950s. After complex logistical issues are taken into account do
icebergs – as in Antarctic icebergs – really provide low cost drinking water
for our increasingly thirsty civilization? </div>
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During the 1950s, the US state of California’s number one
community problem – and still probably is today – is where to get a low cost
supply of fresh water fit for both domestic and industrial use. Back then, an
oceanographer from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography named John Isaacs
has suggested that icebergs be fetched up from the Antarctic to ease the state
of California’s local water shortage. Even though the idea seems too fantastic
at the time (and even for this day and age) – Isaacs’ colleagues from the
Scripps Institution says not at all when they made the requisite mathematical
calculations and found, somewhat to their astonishment, that it is the one
dreamboat that might really float. </div>
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Being formed from glaciers, icebergs are completely
salt-free and unlike their smaller North Atlantic variety, Antarctic icebergs
are big enough to make the idea worthwhile – as in economically viable. A good
sized Antarctic iceberg is typically 10 miles long, half a mile wide and 600
feet thick can even be considered “small” when talking about Antarctic
icebergs. </div>
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Using 1950s era slide rules to crunch the numbers, the
scientists of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography together with John Isaacs
calculated that in two months time, three ocean-going tugboats could work a 10
mile long, half a mile wide iceberg drifting in the Antarctic into the Humboldt
Current running up the west coast of South America. Where the Humboldt Current
slows down off Peru and Ecuador, the tugboats would steer the icebergs into
other favorable ocean currents that would lead it in a long, lateral loop
almost to Hawaii and eventually to Los Angeles. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Given that these favorable currents move at around 2 to 3
knots, the whole trip would take about a year and along the way the iceberg
might lose as much as half of its vast bulk. But it would still represent about
300 billion gallons of fresh water. Authorities could ground the iceberg on an
offshore shoal and surround it with a floating dam extending about 20 feet or
so below the surface. This would keep the fresh water penned in around the
iceberg as the ice melted. </div>
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Because it is lighter, the fresh water would stay on top of
the surrounding salt water and the city of Los Angeles could just pump it out
as needed through pipes leading to the mainland. One iceberg that was
originally 10 miles long when it was toed back from the Antarctic would be
enough to supply the city’s then normal needs of fresh water for about a month
– using 1950s water consumption figures. </div>
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Back in the 1950s, the total cost of the water so delivered
– mainly the then rate of one million US dollars for a year’s hire of the three
ocean going tugboats – works out to be something like one-third of a US cent
per thousand gallons, a minute fraction in comparison to what the city of Los
Angeles pays back in the 1950s for its regular source of drinking water.
Calculated to be financially feasible for California using 1950s prevailing
costs, this method of “outsourcing” fresh water might still be appropriate for
the water needy arid regions of the Southern Hemisphere – like South Africa,
Australia and the Peruvian desert communities. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-58552980793419742013-03-25T06:24:00.004-07:002013-03-25T06:24:51.276-07:00Shanghai River Dead Pigs: Inauspicious World Water Day For 2013? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The timing could have been much worse but is the recent
Shanghai pig carcasses in the river that number in the thousands a portent of
our inability to manage our precious and dwindling fresh water resource? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By: Ringo Bones </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shanghai’s Huangpu River had recently gained global
notoriety for the pig carcasses that on last count now had numbered 14,000 had
been oft cited as an example of most government’s inability across the world to
effectively manage their dwindling fresh water resource. And the pig carcass
debacle could not have come much worse when back in March 22, 2013 we've just observed
World Water Day. And many water supply watchdogs are increasingly concerned
that most governments across the world are just too cavalier when it comes to
formulating long-term plans to maintain the cleanliness of their main water
supplies. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Strange as it seems, Shanghai’s city officials say the river
still meets national water quality standards. I mean how poor are their criteria
for water quality standards can be when 14,000 pig carcasses strewn across the
Huangpu River was deemed not a factor to downgrade the prevailing water quality
standard of the said river? Clean water is not only vital in maintaining the
health and well being of the populace but also vital for industrial and
manufacturing activity as well. The powers that be also seem just too cavalier
in their economic assessments when it comes to water supply security. By the way, we've been celebrating World Water Day since 1993. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the world watches the “Shanghai River Pig Carcass
Debacle” unfurl, authorities say they believe that many of the pigs came from
the nearby city of Jiaxing in the Zhejiang Province where there are major pig
farms. Many suspect that the thousands of pig carcasses strewn on the river is
due to the government crackdown on pig farms back on November 2012 where a
number of pig farms were ordered to be closed for using dead pig carcasses that
died from sickness in making sausages and other processed meat products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-20001186602968675452012-11-28T04:57:00.001-08:002012-11-28T04:57:25.299-08:00Flash Distillation: The Most Energy Efficient Desalination Method That Was?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before the advent of the discovery of an efficient polymer
based membrane for reverse osmosis, was flash distillation the most energy
efficient method of desalinating seawater during its heyday?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By: Ringo Bones </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in the 1950s, when polymer-based membrane for use in an
energy efficient reverse osmosis desalination plant use were still decades
away, a way of converting seawater to potable freshwater called flash
distillation was deemed the most energy efficient method of desalination at the
time. But what makes Flash Distillation Desalination Plants so energy efficient
compared to say merely distilling seawater at normal atmospheric pressure? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The boiling point of water – at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or
100 degrees Celsius – is largely determined by the prevailing atmospheric
pressure of 1 atmosphere – or 14.7 pounds per square inch or 760mm of Hg at sea
level. At about 60,000 feet above sea
level, where the prevailing atmospheric pressure is only 2 percent that at sea
level, water now boils at human body temperature of 98 degrees Fahrenheit or 37
degrees Celsius – thus this is why we need pressure suits / space suits when we
ascent at higher altitudes – and this is the working principle behind the flash
distillation desalination system. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When superheated water enters a chamber at reduced pressure,
the water flashes almost instantaneously into steam, this is the basis of flash
distillation where seawater first enters the system in a pipe which forms coils
as it passes through successive evaporating chambers. The pipe carries the
water past a heating furnace where it is superheated (heated above boiling
point without boiling it) to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. As the superheated
seawater flows into and through the reduced pressure evaporators, each of the
chambers is filled with steam. A steady inflow of seawater keep the coils cool
and the resulting steam condenses on them and drips into drains that leads to
storage tanks and since salt is not carried into the steam, the resulting
condensation is fresh water while a briny residue many times saltier than the
seawater is drained away. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in 1958, the city of Freeport in the US state of Texas
was selected by the US government as the site to build an experimental flash
distillation desalination plant to solve the chronic thirst of what then the
city’s 11,800 inhabitants. Freeport got the priority because even the water
obtained from the local artesian wells was deemed too salty for long-term consumption
even though it is several times less salty than the seawater taken from the
Gulf Coast. </div>
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Back then, it cost 1.2 million US dollars to build, the
experimental Freeport Flash Distillation Plant uses extremely low pressures to
cause water to boil, or “flash” almost instantaneously while leaving salt
behind. And as a bonus, less energy is required - in the form of heating oil or
natural gas – to convert the incoming seawater into steam. The method proved so
efficient that Freeport’s first flash distillation desalination plant’s first
batch of fresh water output produced had too little salt in it that the
residents complained that what came out of their taps tasted too flat – almost
akin to triply-distilled water used in a typical chemistry lab. To remedy the
situation, the distilled water had to be mixed with the slightly “briny” water
from Freeport’s local artesian wells so that some of its “taste” could be
restored. </div>
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Back in the late 1950s, even the experts predict that within
20 years, flash distillation desalination plants located at critical spots will
be producing up to 500 million gallons worth of potable freshwater a day,
enough to supply even the largest cities. Well, this was way before reverse
osmosis went industrial and there was even a nuclear fission powered flash
distillation desalination plant being planned to supply the city of New York
with low-cost freshwater during the critical summer months. How times have
changed indeed.</div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-66622767999729211052012-10-09T06:00:00.001-07:002012-10-09T06:00:44.598-07:00Sun Powered Desalination Plants: Sill Workable Ancient Desalination Technology?<br />
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The ancient concept seems ingenious, but why doesn’t
everyone use the free heat energy from the sun to desalinate seawater into
drinking water anymore?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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Believe it or not, the knowledge that salty seawater can be
made into safe fresh drinkable water is more that 2,000 years old. Ancient
Mediterranean sailors embarking on long seafaring voyages have supplemented
their stores of shipboard drinkable fresh water by placing pots of seawater
under the sun and trapping the condensed vapor. This very same technique – in
an updated scaled-up form – had been tried in some large-scale experimental
desalination plants back in the 1960s. </div>
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Surprisingly, the concept of using the sun’s free thermal
energy to convert salty seawater to potable fresh water can easily work when
scaled up to a several thousand-gallon-a-day capacity. Back in the 1960s, the
4,083 inhabitants of Symi, an island near Greece, used to get all of their
potable fresh water from a newly constructed experimental solar-distillation
unit which can supply about 4,000 gallons a day. It works by tapping the sun’s
free thermal energy – i.e. heat – to turn seawater into fresh water by first
piping seawater into a flat shallow trough enclosed under a transparent plastic
dome. The sun’s heat causes the water to evaporate that re-condenses into
chemically pure fresh water on the cooler underside of the dome. This pure
salt-free water then trickles down the dome, drips into collecting trough at
the edges of the unit and is then collected. The briny residue that’s left
behind – which is several times saltier than seawater – is then flushed away
back to the sea. </div>
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The method is very inexpensive given that the energy source
used to desalinate the seawater is virtually free, unlike the more popular
reverse osmosis method used today which uses electricity to pressurize seawater
up to several thousand pounds per square inch to be squeezed though banks of
salt-filtering polymer membranes. But using the sun’s free thermal or heat
energy to convert seawater into drinkable fresh water is for all intents and
purposes an inefficient and impractical process in most cases because the yield
is quite low: at best only 0.13 gallons per square foot of basin area per day.
This makes a typical solar thermal desalination plants that can be able to
compete the output of a typical modern reverse osmosis desalination plant
occupy a prohibitively large real estate for every gallon of fresh water
produced.</div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-34908182179122403862012-10-05T05:57:00.000-07:002012-10-05T05:57:23.753-07:00Reverse Osmosis: Most energy Efficient Desalination Process?<br />
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First developed during the heyday of NASA’s Apollo program,
is reverse osmosis still the most energy efficient desalination process we have
so far?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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Back in the heyday of the Apollo program, reverse osmosis –
due to lack of an efficient polymer filtering membrane – can only be able to
desalinate or purify human urine into fresh drinkable water. After a few
decades of development, polymer chemists had finally been able to develop a
reverse osmosis membrane that can actually be able to turn the full-on salinity
of sea water into potable fresh drinking water. Not only that, reverse osmosis
has since more or less became the most energy efficient way to desalinate sea
water for drinking purposes – dethroning its previously most energy-efficient
desalination method called low-pressure flash distillation process. </div>
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A typical reverse osmosis desalination membrane – usually
there are banks of them – turns salt water into fresh water when salty sea
water is pressurized through it at 1,000 pounds per square inch. Only the
smaller molecules of water can go through the structure of the “filtering
fabric” in a typical reverse osmosis membrane while the larger molecules of
sodium chloride and other salts are left behind. And what makes a typical
reverse osmosis plant more efficient that its predecessors is that the highly
pressurized salt water and used briny effluent can be reused to run an electric
turbine en route to its release back into the normal prevailing atmospheric
pressure. </div>
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Despite of energy efficiency figures, it still costs 17
million US dollars annually to run a typical large scale reverse osmosis plant
that has the capacity to turn enough sea water to fresh drinking water to
supply a typical metropolis – 10 million US dollars of which pays for the
yearly electric bill. And compared to other sources of tap water, a reverse
osmosis desalinated tap water typically costs around 3.38 US dollars per 1,000
gallons. While a river or lake sourced treated tap water costs around 2 US
dollars per 1,000 gallons while subsurface groundwater sourced treated tap
water costs around 1 US dollars per 1,000 gallons – something to think about
when you decide which water utility company you chose to supply your household
needs. </div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-41409699003810587602012-09-30T06:12:00.001-07:002012-09-30T06:14:00.981-07:00Renewable Energy Desalination Plants: Viable Solution To A Global Thirst?<br />
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Even though humankind has faced water shortage way before
the dawn of civilization, will the use of renewable energy resources to power
desalination plants provide a viable solution?</div>
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By: Ringo Bones </div>
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Even though reverse osmosis is currently the most energy
efficient and most economically viable scheme we have of turning briny seawater
to potable freshwater, it is still energy hunger and the running costs are
still very prohibitively expensive to the ones who needed it most in the
world’s poorest countries. Will the utilization of renewable energy sources –
for example wind and solar – provide a viable solution for meeting the needs to
quench the thirst of the planet’s monetarily disadvantaged? </div>
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Dr. Corrado Sommariva, president of International
Desalination Corporation, says innovations in water desalination that harness
renewable energy sources is the only hope for the long-term solution of the
desalination industry. Earth-friendly renewable energy sources – like wind
turbines and solar photovoltaic cells – had just recently been widely applied
in large-scale industrial electricity generation during the first decade of the
21<sup>st</sup> Century.<br />
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So far, Earth-friendly renewable energy sources use in
the desalination industry is still the exception – not the rule and even most
high-pressure reverse osmosis desalination plants still get their electric
power from conventional fossil-fueled power plants. Will future trends see more
use of renewables in the water desalination industry?</div>
Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-32029046064553355152011-11-02T03:37:00.000-07:002011-11-02T03:38:55.938-07:00Pykrete: Maritime Engineering Material of the Future?First conceived as an alternative to steel which was then in increasingly short supply in constructing warships during World War II, is Pykrete really deserve the claim as the maritime engineering material of the future? <br /> <br />By: Ringo Bones <br /> <br />For those too young to remember the more esoteric events of World War II first hand, the only time we ever heard of Pykrete was probably in MythBusters when they tested out an ice-based composite material once seriously considered for maritime engineering construction – i.e. naval ship building – when steel was in increasingly short supply back in World War II. Usually made by freezing water with sawdust in suspension (14% sawdust by weight and 86% by water by weight), Pykrete takes up to 20 times longer to melt than ordinary frozen water and is slightly more than 30 times stronger than ordinary water ice and is even bulletproof. <br /> <br />This wonder material was originally invented by Geoffrey Pyke, a British journalist, part-time spy and full-time inventor in the UK Blue Sky Research Department. When Geoffrey Pyke invented Pykrete, the wonder material immediately got the attention of Lord Louis Mountbatten – the then chief of combined operations. Mountbatten then bought a specimen of Pykrete the size of a lunchbox to then UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill was in his bathtub at the time when he summoned Mountbatten in and the specimen of Pykrete was accidentally dropped into the warm bathtub water. To Mountbatten and Churchill’s surprise, the Pykrete managed to stay solid for half an hour in the comfortably warm bathtub water. <br /> <br />Due to this demonstration, Pykrete was instantly promoted as a viable solution to the steel shortage of the Allied Nations during World War II in constructing large naval vessels – namely ultra-large aircraft carriers. Unfortunately, creating a fabrication plant to turn Pykrete into a fleet of naval vessels required more steel than a conventional aircraft carrier needs. Even if the Pykrete fabrication plants were located in the frigid reaches of the Arctic Circle. Despite of this, a 60-foot prototype Pykrete boat was built and it took almost a year to completely melt back into water and sawdust.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-49927308567632978612010-04-19T04:40:00.000-07:002010-04-19T04:40:28.582-07:00Does Water Have Memory?A recent study shows that water has the ability to store fairly complex information despite of having a simple molecular structure, the science behind homeopathy? <br />
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By: Ringo Bones <br />
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Noted evolutionist Prof. Richard Dawkins had complained for sometime now on why the UK’s National Health Service had considered homeopathy a legitimate medical treatment when the supposed “science” behind it seems to contradict current paradigms of chemistry and physics. Prof. Dawkins could be in for a surprise when a recent study had shown that water, despite of its deceptively simple molecular structure, has the ability to carry complex information. Will this finally prove the science behind homeopathy? <br />
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Prof. Eshel Ben Jacob a physicist from Tel Aviv University had recently uncovered one of the quirkiest aspects about water that was previously unknown to the scientific community at large. His research centers on the memory retaining capabilities of water that can be verified via bacteria. The bacteria’s behavioral changes would then serve as a test to show if water can “remember” after being exposed to weak electromagnetic radiation. Preliminary results have shown that the test data have consistency and repeatability. The implications of which could finally prove a hitherto unknown scientific explanation behind how homeopathy works. <br />
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For us folks who are knowledgeable enough on our current understanding of chemistry and physics, most of us find the principles behind how homeopathy works just a little bit hard to swallow. Maybe, its just because it involves the dilution of the “active ingredient” to unimaginable levels. Imagine diluting one drop of the active ingredient into a body of water similar in volume to the total amount of water found in our entire Solar System – not just the Earth’s overall body of water like the oceans, rivers glaciers, etc. <br />
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The implication’s of Prof. Jacob’s findings is not just limited to homeopathy. It also suggests that stressfully purified water – even though it is already devoid of disease-causing microorganisms – can make humans who drink them feel stressful. Thus initiating another study by the professor to find out about water purification systems that are less stressful to organic systems. Could stressfully purified water be causing unnecessary stress in humans? <br />
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Prof. Eshel Ben Jacob might have uncovered the science behind those “quirky” properties about water that we had known for sometime. Like how high-end single malt Scotch whiskey makers choose a particular mountain spring water source with a low iron content as their “prized ingredient”. Or how Ian Fleming’s James Bond can tell the difference if his martini is of the shaken as opposed to the stirred variety when a 50-thousand US dollar mass spectrometer can’t tell the difference of the two drinks. Maybe there still really is a lot of things we still don’t know about that most abundant molecule on planet Earth that we call water.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-14363115933697539342009-03-30T05:39:00.000-07:002009-03-30T05:44:19.513-07:00The 5th World Water Forum: Looking for Both Creek and Paddle?This year’s World Water Forum already had identified the root causes of the global water crisis, but can it formulate viable long-term solutions? <br /><br /> <br />By: Ringo Bones <br /><br /> <br />The 5th World Water Forum held in March 16, 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey had a renewed assessment of the Earth’s freshwater resources as the 26 United Nations agencies highlighted the leading causes of our chronic global freshwater shortage. Though the worsening effects of climate change and global warming on freshwater supply stability has yet to be assessed, the policymakers attending the meeting noted that the leading factors driving the demand for potable freshwater are: Population growth and urban migration. Rising living standards that inevitably leads to changes in food consumption – i.e. increased meat consumption, which requires more freshwater to produce, instead of grains and vegetables. And finally increased energy production via hydropower / hydroelectric dam infrastructure and biofuel farming. Before we delve deeper into the issue of our global freshwater sources, here’s a brief introduction of what is the World Water Forum. <br /> <br />The World Water Forum is scheduled to take place every 3 years. Organized by the World Water Council, which is a membership organization comprising of large development banks, associations of professional engineers, various academic institutions, some of the largest aid and environmental organizations, various United Nations agencies, national and local government agencies, and various dam construction companies. <br /> <br />Notable policymakers who presented their assessment of the problem of freshwater supply during this year’s World Water Forum is UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, who presented the report to the World Water Forum on behalf of the UN. The UNESCO Director-General said: “With increasing shortages, good governance is more than ever essential for water management. Combating poverty also depends on our ability to invest in this resource.” <br /> <br />The assessment report presented during this year’s World Water Forum finds that corruption in the water management sector may account for the need of an additional 50 billion US dollars in order for the Millennium Development Goals on water sanitation to be achieved. Water sanitation for the impoverished regions of the globe is one of the 8 goals of the UN's Millenium Development Goals agreed by all of the worlds countries and major development institutions back in 2000 and set to be accomplished by 2015. <br /> <br />Typical examples of corruption in the water management sector include falsified water meter readings, favoritism in public equipment bidding, and nepotism in allocation of public contracts. The report estimates that part of the budget set for water development that can be siphoned off through corruption in some countries run as high as 30%. Plus the environmentally dubious use and mismanagement of scarce freshwater resources to make arid lands into productive farmlands – propped-up as “prestige projects” by some countries - needs to be addressed. <br /> <br />Poverty is also an integral part of the water supply safety issue because the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day is roughly equal to the number of people who are denied access to safe drinking water. And yet more freshwater is diverted in raising the rich man’s cow and raise biofuel for the rich man’s car just because the impoverished folks lack adequate “buying power”. <br /> <br />Pro-environment protestors during this year’s “Forum” criticized large-scale hydroelectric dams – in spite of their low carbon footprint energy production - because they pose heavy environmental impact and risk. The latest dam breech disaster in Indonesia in March 27, 2009, which killed 77 at last count - with dozens still missing - tragically affecting nearby inhabitants, can only attest to this. Could the Three Gorges Dam in China dwarf this disaster someday? <br /> <br />Even though the World Water Forum finally acknowledges extreme poverty, efficient energy utilization, and environmental concerns as part of the problem in maintaining a constant supply and availability of safe freshwater at a reasonable cost. The problems posed by armed conflict, infrastructure to maintain peace and order, and the worsening impact of climate change and global warming seems to be not on the main agenda – again. Programs started by the UN to avail impoverished areas safe drinking water at a reasonable cost seems to get extensive press coverage these days. Though large-scale implementations of these programs are still hindered by the uncertain long-term peace and order situations of these regions. Looks like peace and conflict resolution is an integral factor of making freshwater sanitation programs afloat in these impoverished regions.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-51113398045864879952009-02-16T17:33:00.000-08:002009-02-16T17:37:23.023-08:00Is Cloud-Seeding a Viable Source of Fresh Water?Given that its feasibility in creating rain was thoroughly evaluated in post-World War II America, does the practice of cloud-seeding represent a long-term solution for our freshwater needs? <br /><br /> <br />By: Vanessa Uy <br /><br /> <br />Believe it or not, the amount of fresh water suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere as water vapor is six times more plentiful in comparison to all of the fresh water flowing in all of the Earth’s rivers. Even though the relatively recent technology of cloud-seeding allows us to “almost literally” make water out of thin air, is the method really environmentally friendly given that it involves flying fossil-fueled manned aircraft? <br /> <br />When the Bergeron-Findeisen Theory of Rain – also known as the ice-crystal theory of rain – led to the successful field test of cloud-seeing or the artificial seeding of rain clouds to induce it to rain, had led many to ask whether if this is a viable way to meet with our increasing freshwater needs. The “miracle of science” of creating water out of thin air – even though it works with varying degrees of reliability – has been hailed as a triumph of mankind over the vagaries of our planet’s weather. <br /> <br />The practicality of cloud-seeding was first proved in 1946 when General Electric’s Vincent J. Schaefer and Irving Langmuir tried a newfangled method of rainmaking magnitudes more reliable than primitive man’s ancient rain dance. The principle behind how it works seems to be a model of logic and simplicity. By introducing into an existing cloud formation of super-cooled droplets an agent that promotes the formation of ice crystals in which it can serve as a catalyst to make suspended water droplets to fall back to the ground as precipitation or rain. <br /> <br />Two substances proved to be promising. One was silver iodide, whose crystalline structure is similar to that of naturally formed ice crystals and therefore provides hospitable nuclei on which ice crystals can readily form. The other one is solid carbon dioxide – or dry ice – which is so cold that it causes atmospheric water vapor to solidify into enormous numbers of tiny ice crystals. In both cases, precipitation should follow in accordance to the Bergeron-Findeisen Theory of Rain. <br /> <br />Ultra-fine pellets of dry ice are usually sown or dispensed into a cloud from airplanes. While silver iodide is released as smoke, sometimes from an airplane via dedicated cloud-seeding pyrotechnic flares, sometimes from the ground. Both methods only work if the dispensed agents reach the super-cooled rain clouds that occur at 18,000 feet - or higher. <br /> <br />Given that since the start of cloud-seeding programs the local area intended to receive the man-made rain resulted in an increase of rainfall by 8 to 12%, there had been plans to use cloud-seeding to replace the snows of receding glaciers affected by global warming. But the problem with cloud-seeding is that it involve the use of aircraft that have a significant carbon footprint that resulted in significant carbon dioxide emissions which is primarily what started the global warming / greenhouse effect problem in the first place. <br /> <br />While China has been lately using anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles to deliver cloud-seeding agents to the desired altitudes to create rain for the drought-stricken farmers, whether this method is truly environmentally friendly – i.e. low carbon footprint source of fresh water - remains to be seen. Unless carbon neutral / zero-emission aircraft and other delivery systems are used in cloud-seeding, this method of obtaining potable fresh water is strictly for emergency purposes only.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-61891040604007039102009-01-03T07:18:00.000-08:002009-01-03T07:20:51.875-08:00Death of the Colorado River: Inevitability of Human Progress?In the face of climate change, global warming and urban sprawl, will the Colorado River gain a new lease on life via a well-planned water management scheme? <br /><br /> <br /> By: Vanessa Uy <br /><br /> <br />Ever since that fateful hot September day in 1540 when García Lopez de Cárdenas, scouting around what is now northern Arizona for the great Spanish explorer Coronado accidentally discovered the Colorado River, the river’s future has always been dependent on how the incumbent human civilization uses its waters. From the major dams that harnessed the power of its massive flow of water to the fertile farmlands around it that uses 80% of its waters, the Colorado River has indeed made possible the settlement of the otherwise arid desert of the state of Nevada. Given that urban sprawl around what is now Las Vegas, Nevada has always been inevitable, will a planned water management scheme provide a new lease on life before the Colorado River inevitably dries up? <br /> <br />After the long drought of the American Southwest reached its 8th year in 2008, the long-term future of the Colorado River has never been so perilous. Especially when the city of Las Vegas has been hogging the water resources provided by the Colorado River ever since it got rich on the gambling revenues of the past 50 years or so. Add to that the army of workers needed to run the myriad casinos plus the facilities needed to house them all demand a dependable supply of water from the mighty Colorado. <br /> <br />Given that global warming / climate change is now in full swing due to our current inevitability to wean off from our fossil fuel addiction, the future of the Colorado River has never faced a threat more serious since the end of the Ice Age. The Colorado River has always been fed by the dependable snowfall on the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and iconic for carving out the Grand Canyon. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, the Colorado River has been harnessed – via large dams like the Hoover Dam - to turn the desert around it into productive farmlands to maintain America’s food security. Plus the relatively cheap electricity generated as a bonus. <br /> <br />When it comes to the “questionable use” of the water provided by the Colorado River, the blame has always been pointed at the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Where the golf courses, fountains, man-made waterfalls, and suburban lawns exert a tremendous ecological impact of the land’s naturally arid ecosystem. As of late, legislation had been set-up to ease water demand by residential lawns by shifting to the use of ornamental plants that are better adapted to the arid climate of Las Vegas. Even granting households tax-breaks if they change their ornamental plants to those varieties that are adapted to the desert climate of Las Vegas. Thus minimizing water being diverted to irrigating sprinkler use. <br /> <br />Even though many residents saw the “draconian” measures of water conservation seem a bit extreme, progress has been made. During the last 5 years, the population of Las Vegas – the long-term residents not tourists – increased by 400,000 people, the city’s overall water consumption dropped by 18%. If Las Vegas adopts measures to utilize the waters provided by the Colorado River in a sustainable manner, the river might gain a new lease on life despite the threat of drought caused by climate change and / or global warming. A well-formulated water management strategy will indeed decide the future of the Colorado River.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-57554812123733504202008-12-07T17:54:00.000-08:002008-12-07T17:58:04.877-08:00Is Polywater a Hoax?Probably known by most people as the mysterious substance called ice-nine in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Cat’s Cradle”. Given the advances in polymer chemistry, is polywater even technically feasible? <br /><br /><br />By: Vanessa Uy <br /><br /><br />Of all the possible weapons of mass destruction in our disposal, a weapon based on polywater would probably be the end of mankind. Imagine a weapon that would render water to freeze or solidify at room temperature. Nutrition and other vital life processes would grind to a halt. Every biological entity on Earth dependent on water will cease to exist. From the smallest microorganism to the mightiest redwood tree – even people – would soon die if polywater is unleashed on our planet’s hydrological system. And we haven’t even taken into consideration yet the climatic effects if all the water on our planet is unable to circulate. Despite being the perfect “doomsday weapon”, why are the various military intelligence agencies around the world voiced their concerns over polywater being used as a possible WMD by various terrorist groups? <br /><br />Misanthropic novelist Kurt Vonnegut first described the concept behind polywater on his book titled Cat’s Cradle. In this novel, he referred to polywater as ice-nine, a theoretical substance that could polymerize the molecular structure of water allowing it to freeze or solidify at room temperature. In Cat’s Cradle, ice-nine was accidentally released into the Earth’s hydrological system, contaminating ordinary water and thus turning it into polywater. <br /><br />During the mid 1960’s in Soviet era Russia, a scientists named Boris Deryagin – also spelled Derjaguin – did laboratory experiments to find out whether water molecules can be polymerized the same way as monomers found in crude oil being used in industrial scale polymerization to make useful plastics. Another Russian scientist during the same period named Nikolai Fedyakin also experimented with the concept a few years later. When the “alleged” lab results of their secret studies managed to leak out of the then Iron Curtain. Rumors circulated in the West that Soviet scientists managed to turn water in the laboratory into a rubbery jelly-like substance that you would need a spoon in order to drink. When the rumors persisted, the US Bureau of Standards did their own investigative work about polywater back in 1969. Yet, the polywater rumors seem to have mysteriously vanished after the US Bureau of Standards investigation into the matter. Despite of the “cloak and dagger” behind the study, is it even possible to polymerize water molecules to turn it into some kind of plastic? <br /><br />The molecular structure of ordinary water allows it to perform extraordinary feats that no other chemical substance on Earth – natural or man-made – can match. The tenacious hydrogen bonds - is primarily responsible for most of the “oddities” of water’s behavior. Their strength is made manifest by the large amounts of energy required to break them. That is why so much heat must be supplied to raise the temperature of water, and why it’s freezing and boiling points are abnormally high. Based on this, does this mean that polywater has potential for use as a heat and cold-resistant aerospace material if water polymerization can be made scientifically feasible? Could be, but unless further scientific studies on polywater that are peer-reviewed beyond reproach might dispel the myths behind it’s existence. Or will polywater just become another scientific crank like cold fusion or the late 1980’s era ballotechnic red mercury. Only time will tell.Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4797588688700267896.post-56911524376639462572008-12-02T06:40:00.000-08:002008-12-02T06:43:06.900-08:00Water: A Maverick and a Radical among Compounds?It is the one of the most abundant substance on Earth, and yet it is one of the least understood. Are we ignoring the secrets behind water at our own peril? <br /><br /><br />By: Vanessa Uy <br /><br /><br />Though most people choose to remain ignorant about the whimsically willful ways of water despite of its primary importance in their lives. A number of wars of “recent” history are full of accounts vehemently denying that their war is about water. And instead blame abstract concepts like sovereignty disputes because a conflict over water has been poorly blessed with a perception of “unsexiness” for much of history. But nonetheless, we can never deny the ever-varied usefulness of water. <br /><br />Relatively recent advances in the science of chemistry had only begun to explain the radical and maverick properties of water. Water molecules are bound together in ways unlike those of any other compound; because of this water possesses physical and chemical properties that can only be described as unique and paradoxical. <br /><br />Water is one of those rare substances that are heavier in their liquid state than in their solid form. This is the reason why ice floats. As a liquid, water can rise uphill despite of the force of gravity – most of us know this as capillary action. Water is also very benign that more than a myriad forms of life can thrive within it – and yet so corrosive that, given enough time, water will disintegrate most of the metals found on the Periodic Table. It can also change its state with uncanny ease – sometimes existing simultaneously as a solid (ice), liquid (water), and a gas (water vapor) around the same body of water. But paradoxically, water must either yield or absorb tremendous amounts of energy to achieve these state transformations. Thus making water a very good coolant due to its very high heat capacity. <br /><br />This is just a “starter list” of what makes water a radical and a maverick among the chemical compounds found on our planet. Our cheap but powerful “modern” computers are very dependent on water for their production. So does the cars, and the gasoline being extracted from crude oil – all of these processes require water. And yet paradoxically, millions of our poorer brethren are dying every year because they are denied access to safe drinking water. While we in affluent nations are wasting it like its out of fashion. Kind of unfair isn’t it?Ringohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506068154852505840noreply@blogger.com0