LivingGreen

As the years go by, it’s interesting to see the same innovators pushing the envelope in new ways. For instance, ZeroEnergy Design, a design firm that we mentioned with the...

Filed under: Food, Gadgets and Tech, Alternative Energy

Imagine a world where nobody steals used cooking oil, because there's no grease trap. Instead, every fast food place in town reuses their grease to heat and power their restaurant with a VegaWatt cogeneration system. About the size of a washer/dryer combo, the VegaWatt disposes of used fry oil by running it through a 4-stage cleaning process and burning it in an EPA Tier 4 diesel generator to supplement 10-25% of a restaurant's power, and it's fully automated.

The VegaWatt has the capacity to guzzle the grease of restaurants equipped with 3-5 fryers -- and if you've got more than 5 fryers ... wow, you really must like deep fried food. Unlike putting up a wind turbine, solar panels, etc. the VegaWatt not only provides you with clean power, but it also saves you money in other areas. The VegaWatt's coling system pumps water throught the contraption and then back out to your water heater, lightening the load on your water heater. Even better, you don't have to pay a service to come pump your grease trap. In a lot of ways, it's similar to that trash gobbling dumpster.

[via Inhabitat]

VegaWatt Converts Fast Food Grease into Power originally appeared on Green Daily on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Filed under: Cars and Transportation, Gadgets and Tech, Alternative Energy

Here at Green Daily, we've run across quite a few inventions recently designed to two-wheeling power to the next level, the bike generator, the Green Wheel, etc. -- but the Wind Helmet may just take the prize for originality. This sleek concept, conceived by Malaysian designer Wai Hoong Leng, helps turn your passive safety gear into a renewable energy generator.

By channeling the wind current through the top of the helmet and across a small turbine, the Wind Helmet can generate enough power to recharge you mobile devices as you cruise. While the design may be best suited for those on a scooter -- since it looks a little on the bulky side -- it's definitely stylish enough to have cross over appeal for cyclists; especially if they're cruising on a power-assisted ebike. I'm hoping that Leng has done the safety research necessary to determine whether this hefty helmet won't break our necks at high speeds. That would be thoughtful.

[via AutoblogGreen]

The Wind Helmet Combines Safety and Sustainability originally appeared on Green Daily on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Filed under: Gadgets and Tech, Alternative Energy

It's practically a post-holiday tradition: averting your eco-eyes as you drive past piles of non-recyclable, non-compostable, non-reusable trash crowding the curb, waiting for a ride to the Landfill of Non-biodegradeable Limbo.

Don't look away! Things can be different. We can use that trash for good!

Waste to energy plants take solid trash like non-recyclable plastic, and incinerate it, capturing the energy produced by the burn and sending it into the grid to heat homes and supply electric power.
But burning plastic, that's about as Carbon Awful as you can get, right?

Wrong. We're not talking about setting fire to a bunch of 2 liter soda bottles in an oil drum in the backyard -- that is an egregious act of pollution. And probably also deadly for everyone on the block.

Thanks to sophisticated technology, the emissions of your average waste to energy plant are generally lower than coal or gas powered energy plants. Counter-intuitively, the technology of burning trash helps us reduce greenhouse emissions!

This fascinating video about how a solid waste plant works, from Wheelabrator, which owns and operates several waste to energy plants in the U.S., illustrates the process. You can see the methods used to sort and neutralize the various components -- ferous metals, dioxins, particulate matter -- and capture the energy produced.

It's kind of inspiring to see how much can be recovered from "unusable" trash. Especially since landfills around the world are running out space fast. Many locations have less than 10 years of space left!

Added bonus? Communities that use waste to energy power sources tend to do more recycling, more reusing and generally make more conscious choices about consumption and waste disposal, so waste management improves across the board.

It's Not Waste, it's Energy! originally appeared on Green Daily on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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