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Topic: Weather, Climate, Environment, and Energy

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Brutus Buckeye

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betarhoalphadelta

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2087 on: March 25, 2020, 06:48:35 PM »
Let's see if humanity makes it another 100.

847badgerfan

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2088 on: March 25, 2020, 07:34:56 PM »
Let's see if humanity makes it another 100.
We will, if the CCP goes away.
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FearlessF

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2089 on: April 04, 2020, 09:51:38 AM »
Researchers at the University of Southampton have transformed optical fibers into photocatalytic microreactors that convert water into hydrogen fuel using solar energy.

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-photocatalytic-optical-fibers-solar-fuel.html
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MrNubbz

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2090 on: April 04, 2020, 10:02:46 AM »
We will, if the CCP goes away.
What is the CCP?at 1st I was thinking the Chinese Communist Party
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CWSooner

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2091 on: April 04, 2020, 03:00:58 PM »
What is the CCP?at 1st I was thinking the Chinese Communist Party
I think it's the Chinese Communist Party.
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MrNubbz

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2092 on: April 04, 2020, 03:36:20 PM »
Weather has been pleasant the last two days 50-60s.Spokesman for the CCP are to be believed more than any of N.E. Ohio's meteorologists
"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me”. –Emo Philips.

CWSooner

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2093 on: April 04, 2020, 03:54:12 PM »
Weather has been pleasant the last two days 50-60s.Spokesman for the CCP are to be believed more than any of N.E. Ohio's meteorologists
30s-40s here in NE Oklahoma the last two days.  How 'bout that!?
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MarqHusker

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2094 on: April 04, 2020, 04:48:25 PM »
Mowed  the lawn, cleaned the floors, and went fishing.  Kids crushed the bluegill.  Getting nippy now.  North winds

CWSooner

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2095 on: April 06, 2020, 09:50:01 PM »
Popular Mechanics[/color]
Ground-Up Tire Pavement Could Be Safer for Pedestrians and Athletes
This is where the rubber is the road.
BY CAROLINE DELBERT
APR 2, 2020


1 2 3 numbered Track lanes at municipal track in Rumford, Maine USA title=1 2 3 numbered Track lanes at municipal track in Rumford, Maine USACAPPI THOMPSONGETTY IMAGES

  • A new pavement made with 60 percent recycled tires could save thousands of people who die from falls each year.
  • The U.S. alone produces nearly 250 million retired tires per year.
  • Recycled rubber composites have been used on playgrounds and tracks for decades.

Could a bouncier and more forgiving pavement save lives? Researchers think so. A huge group of researchers from dozens of universities and companies belong to an overarching project called SAFERUP, which stands for (take a deep breath) Sustainable, Accessible, Safe, Resilient, and Smart Urban Pavements.
In a press release, the group shares a World Health Organization fact: “Falls are the second leading cause of accidental or unintentional injury deaths worldwide, with adults older than 65 years of age suffering the greatest number of fatal falls.” Some number of falls will always be inevitable, and the researchers say replacing traditional concrete or pavement materials with something more forgiving could turn many of these fatal flaws into survivable ones.
To make a softer pavement, researchers have combined the building blocks of pavement with a recycled material. Blacktop roads are made by pouring a mixture of small gravel and hot bitumen tar onto the surface and then pressing it flat using a steamroller. To that traditional mix of rocks and tar, scientists added 60 percent by volume of shredded rubber tires. Because tar is technically a liquid, although an extremely viscous and slow-moving one, it can support the “give” of the bouncy tire pieces.

Sound familiar? For those with kids or who have recently been kids themselves, the SAFERUP pavement concept might seem a lot like the recycled paving materials already used as flooring for playgrounds. In that context, the tire pieces are called crumb rubber, which is a small shred of recycled automotive tires with all the textile bits removed.
There’s no doubt crumb rubber-based coatings can help protect children at playgrounds, and many training gyms and running tracks use some kind of rubber or crumb rubber for its decreased wear and tear on bones and joints.
But for crumb rubber aggregate surfaces, families and communities have wondered for a long time about the chemical safety of using recycled tires. Since 2016, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been conducting an ongoing research project to study the safety of the chemical makeup of recycled tire paving. The CPSC says its studies have not revealed any chemical danger or evidence of health problems from using these materials.

Certainly the situation is different for children, who put things in their mouths or pick up any loose bits to stick in their pockets. But even for them, studies show rubberized playground surfaces are safer in terms of injury than any other surface. In fact, in one study from the U.K., bark mulch didn’t protect children much better than simply concrete.
If the goal in making better surfaces is pure harm reduction, rubber surfaces have a track record of achieving that goal. The SAFERUP project says its short-term goal is to train a new generation of pavers and other workers who will install and monitor these surfaces. The scientists envision safer pavements that also have sensors or other technology that will “notice” if people have fallen or there’s been a collision.
The benefit is twofold. Yes, protecting people who fall is a worthwhile goal in itself. "Thousands of lives could be saved by this pavement surface, both in the U.K. and other countries," participating researcher Viveca Wallqvist said in a statement. And if walking or cycling is made safer for people who are typically vulnerable to fall injury, researchers believe they’ll be more likely to get out and stay active.

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CWSooner

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2096 on: April 06, 2020, 11:04:16 PM »
This Plastic-Eating Caterpillar Could Be Key in Fighting an Environmental Menace
Plastic waste is a big problem...with a small solution?
BY DAISY HERNANDEZ
MAR 8, 2020


image title=imageFEDERICA BERTOCCHINI / PAOLO BOMBELLI / CHRIS HOWE

  • solution to the plastic pollution problem might exist within the eating habits and digestive machinations of Galleria mellonella, also known as the ‘great wax moth.’
  • It was discovered—by accident—that these little guys have the ability to digest polyethylene, the most common type of plastic that's notoriously difficult to break down.
  • Scientists are hoping that studying G. mellonella might provide insights that could lead to the development of tools and processes that can get rid of plastic pollutants.

It turns out mother nature may have a solution for our massive plastic waste problem. The answer? Galleria mellonella, more commonly known as the ‘great wax moth’ or the ‘honeycomb moth.’ What makes these little guys so special? G. mellonella larvae enjoy chowing down on polyethylene, the most common type of plastic which also happens to be incredibly difficult to breakdown.
In 2017, researchers accidentally discovered that wax worms had eaten holes through plastic bags in which they were being stored. Puzzled, Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe placed the critters on polyethylene film in a lab and observed them getting to work on the plastic. The results showed that 100 worms were able to ingest 92 milligrams of the material over a 12-hour period. While it’s not a massive amount, it’s still more than microbes are able to breakdown. What’s more, the caterpillars—sometimes called ‘plastivores’—actually digest the plastic allowing them to turn the material into energy.
“The answer may lie in the ecology of the wax worm itself. They feed on beeswax, and their natural niche is the honeycomb; the moth lays its eggs inside the beehive, where the worms grow to the pupa stage eating beeswax,” say the study's authors. The results were published in the journal Current Biology.

Because beeswax is comprised of “a highly diverse mixture of lipid compounds,” the worms have adapted the ability to also break plastic down since some of those compounds are similar in their chemical makeup to polyethylene.
Researchers hope that this breakdown process can be analyzed and reproduced as a “biotechnological solution to managing polyethylene waste.”
Even if we wanted to use wax worms in the interim, they can only do so much. According to Discover, wax worms may help offer a solution but they themselves are not the answer. A group of 60 ravenous caterpillars can chomp through a piece of plastic the size of a matchbook. It's not a big solution, but it's a small start.


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Cincydawg

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2097 on: April 07, 2020, 06:39:56 AM »
The problem with PE waste is entirely getting it to one place.  If that can be done, it can easily be managed.  Pure PE "waste" would be a resource if collected in one place in sufficient quantity reproducibly.  Any polymer is a bunch of molecules strung together, and above a certain temperature they will dissociate (ceiling temperature) if initiated.  Just as the small "mers" will join (polymerize), so they will also disjoin (depolymerize) back into the "mers".

And the stuff can be burned for energy if collected in a near pure state.  Collection however is an issue.  The bodies of milk jogs are PE, the cap however is PP.

We in the US collect "recyclables" mixed all together, and about the only thing pulled out of that stream is aluminum, the rest goes to landfill.

847badgerfan

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2098 on: April 07, 2020, 08:47:13 AM »
Popular Mechanics[/color]
Ground-Up Tire Pavement Could Be Safer for Pedestrians and Athletes
This is where the rubber is the road.
BY CAROLINE DELBERT
APR 2, 2020


1 2 3 numbered Track lanes at municipal track in Rumford, Maine USA title=1 2 3 numbered Track lanes at municipal track in Rumford, Maine USACAPPI THOMPSONGETTY IMAGES


  • A new pavement made with 60 percent recycled tires could save thousands of people who die from falls each year.
  • The U.S. alone produces nearly 250 million retired tires per year.
  • Recycled rubber composites have been used on playgrounds and tracks for decades.

Could a bouncier and more forgiving pavement save lives? Researchers think so. A huge group of researchers from dozens of universities and companies belong to an overarching project called SAFERUP, which stands for (take a deep breath) Sustainable, Accessible, Safe, Resilient, and Smart Urban Pavements.
In a press release, the group shares a World Health Organization fact: “Falls are the second leading cause of accidental or unintentional injury deaths worldwide, with adults older than 65 years of age suffering the greatest number of fatal falls.” Some number of falls will always be inevitable, and the researchers say replacing traditional concrete or pavement materials with something more forgiving could turn many of these fatal flaws into survivable ones.
To make a softer pavement, researchers have combined the building blocks of pavement with a recycled material. Blacktop roads are made by pouring a mixture of small gravel and hot bitumen tar onto the surface and then pressing it flat using a steamroller. To that traditional mix of rocks and tar, scientists added 60 percent by volume of shredded rubber tires. Because tar is technically a liquid, although an extremely viscous and slow-moving one, it can support the “give” of the bouncy tire pieces.

Sound familiar? For those with kids or who have recently been kids themselves, the SAFERUP pavement concept might seem a lot like the recycled paving materials already used as flooring for playgrounds. In that context, the tire pieces are called crumb rubber, which is a small shred of recycled automotive tires with all the textile bits removed.
There’s no doubt crumb rubber-based coatings can help protect children at playgrounds, and many training gyms and running tracks use some kind of rubber or crumb rubber for its decreased wear and tear on bones and joints.
But for crumb rubber aggregate surfaces, families and communities have wondered for a long time about the chemical safety of using recycled tires. Since 2016, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been conducting an ongoing research project to study the safety of the chemical makeup of recycled tire paving. The CPSC says its studies have not revealed any chemical danger or evidence of health problems from using these materials.

Certainly the situation is different for children, who put things in their mouths or pick up any loose bits to stick in their pockets. But even for them, studies show rubberized playground surfaces are safer in terms of injury than any other surface. In fact, in one study from the U.K., bark mulch didn’t protect children much better than simply concrete.
If the goal in making better surfaces is pure harm reduction, rubber surfaces have a track record of achieving that goal. The SAFERUP project says its short-term goal is to train a new generation of pavers and other workers who will install and monitor these surfaces. The scientists envision safer pavements that also have sensors or other technology that will “notice” if people have fallen or there’s been a collision.
The benefit is twofold. Yes, protecting people who fall is a worthwhile goal in itself. "Thousands of lives could be saved by this pavement surface, both in the U.K. and other countries," participating researcher Viveca Wallqvist said in a statement. And if walking or cycling is made safer for people who are typically vulnerable to fall injury, researchers believe they’ll be more likely to get out and stay active.


I'd like to know about the structural number of this type of pavement. How would it stand up to a Chicago winter, Arizona summer, salt, leaking antifreeze, acidic soils beneath it, etc. I think I'll do a little research on it and report back. I'm not much into pavement, but this is intriguing.

My first take, prior to research:

I think it could be useful for things like walking/bike paths and other light-duty uses. I can't see it on a street - not even the most lightly travelled ones.
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847badgerfan

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Re: Weather, Climate, and Environment
« Reply #2099 on: April 07, 2020, 08:48:34 AM »
We in the US collect "recyclables" mixed all together, and about the only thing pulled out of that stream is aluminum, the rest goes to landfill.
Got any numbers for glass?
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

 

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