Salinity power as renewable energy

Green energy comes in many guises these days, from wind-power to wave-power. One of the more compelling of the new kids on the eco-energy block is salinity power, which uses the concurrence of salt-water and freshwater in estuaries and marries it with the natural, effortless process of osmosis. March 12, 2009 In 1748 the monk/physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet exploded a wine-filled pig’s bladder when he submerged it in a trough of water (What did he think would happen?). The resulting discovery was of course, osmosis, and two teams of clever Europeans think they can use this natural process to give the world clean, green and perpetual electricity by exploiting the chemical difference between salt-water and fresh water.

A quick science lesson:Osmosis is, according to Donald Haynie, author of Biological Thermodynamics (1) “a physical process in which a solvent moves, without input of energy, across a semi-permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations”. In this case, the low-concentrate solvent is fresh water, the solute is sodium chloride (salt) and the high concentration solution is salt-water. The two teams, Wetsus (The Centre for Sustainable Water Technology) in the Netherlands and Statkraft in Norway, are racing against the clock to be the first to make salinity power a viable alternative to traditional methods. And while they’ve based their energy solutions (pun intended) on similar science, their approaches to generating electricity are quite different.

Statkraft: Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO)The Norwegians at Statkraft are putting their hopes in Pressure Retarded Osmosis or PRO for short. Invented by American/Israeli researcher Sidney Loeb in 1973, the science is fairly straight forward: two chambers, one with salt-water and one with fresh water are divided by a semi-permeable membrane.This membrane is like a one-way valve, which draws the ‘dilute’ fresh water through it into the ‘concentrate’ of salt-water. This increases the pressure in the salt-water chamber, and this resulting pressure can be used to drive a turbine, thereby generating electricity. The only waste product is ‘brackish’ (slightly salty) water, which flows back into the sea. Statkraft have estimated that salinity power could eventually provide around 10 per cent of the Norway’s electricity needs, or in other words, around 12 terawatt-hours of electricity per year.

The company is building the world’s first complete facility for osmotic power generation and believes a full-scale commercial plant could be up and running as early as 2015. Wetsus: Reverse electrodialysis (RED)Wetsus is batting on the Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) team. Wetsus believes it can use salt-water from the North Sea and fresh water from the Rhine (where the waters meet and form an estuary) to make a kind of battery using osmotic principles they’ve dubbed “Blue Energy”. With enough “Blue Energy” batteries, Wetsus feels the estuary could generate more than a gigawatt of electricity - or to put it another way - enough to supply around 650,000 homes. The Blue Energy method works much like a car battery and employs two types of membranes - in this case, both are impermeable to water, but are permeable to ions. One for sodium ions, the other for chloride ions (both of which are abundant in salt-water - of course). So in flows the sea-water, where the positively charged sodium ions move through one membrane into a fresh water channel, and the negatively charged chloride ions move through the other membrane - and in the opposite direction. This separation of charged particles results in an electrical difference between two electrodes at either side of the device and this gives us our chemical battery.

The pros:This is as green as energy gets, the only waste product is brackish water, which flows into the sea and mixes harmlessly with the sea water. It’s also a weather-proof technology (barring the odd tsunami) as it’s not reliant on erratic forces such as sunshine or wind. Wind-farms average about 3,500 operational hours per year, whereas salinity power plants could arguably churn out power for 7,000+ hours per year - and at a fairly constant rate. Statkraft estimate that the global potential for salinity power is about 1,600 to 1,700 terrawatt-hours each year, which works out as roughly 1 per cent of the planet’s energy needs.

The plants could be easily be combined with existing power-plants, built underground, in basements etc. reducing cost, and visual pollution. Basically, anywhere salt-water and fresh water coincide is a potential green power station just waiting to happen. The cons:The biggest obstacle for both teams is that membrane development isn’t up to the level they’d both like. The technology needs to advance, and soon. Bio-fouling of the membrane - with silt and algae - is also a big issue. The ionic membranes used by Wetsus for their Blue Energy technology are less prone to fouling, but efficiency and durability are still issues to resolve. Statkraft are looking at anti-fouling coatings and considering option like occasionally reversing water flow to flush the system. Of course, salinity power isn’t as egalitarian as say, wind power. While it can be implemented in any situation where there’s an abundant supply of salt-water and fresh water it clearly suits countries with extensive coastline and a lot of rivers - which means plenty estuaries where the power plants can be established.

By their own estimates, Salinity power only has the potential to meet around 1 per cent of global energy. That’s actually a lot of juice, but it’s no great white (salty) hope. Still, if they can improve efficiency, salinity power will be a welcome addition to the growing green energy family.

Source: Gizmag

IIS: Students Visit Spain as Part of their Course

Students from the Class of 2010 of STEP and GPISH traveled to Spain for an educational visit in February and March, respectively. As part of their courses “Architecture of the Muslim World” (GPISH) and “Religious Education and the Humanities in Secondary Education” (STEP), the two groups visited some of the most notable sites of Granada, Cordoba and Malaga.


In Granada, the students visited the quarter of Albaycin, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994. This was followed by a visit to the historic Alhambra Palace, built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Sultans of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Muslim rulers of Al-Andalus.


Students then traveled north to Cordoba, visiting the Great Mosque of Cordoba; the most accomplished monument of the Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba. Further visits also included the momentous Madinat al-Zahra, founded by ‘Abd al-Rahman III, shortly after the proclamation of the Umayyad caliphate in Al-Andalus.



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A symphony of the soul

Spirituality through music is an integral facet of Sufism, and an important dimension in the practice of many interpretations of Islam, including the Ismaili tariqah. Sufism (tasawwuf in Arabic) is the esoteric expression of Islamic tradition, dedicated to the inner search of the heart and soul to reach a higher realm.
Musical expression is helpful in observing a Sufi’s path in life. Through dhikr, meditation, prayer, poetry, and the recitation of the Qur’an, Sufis immerse themselves in contemplation and spiritual reflection.

From North Africa to South Asia, and Central Asia to Eastern Europe, distinct musical traditions have evolved throughout the Muslim world, including the qawwali, the naat and the mugham. In modern times, tradition bearers such as Houria Aishi, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Alim and Ferghana Qasimov have found an international audience, allowing the melodies of Islam to be appreciated outside their habitual milieu.

“The heart of man has been so constituted by the Almighty that, like a flint, it contains a hidden fire which is evoked by music and harmony, and renders man beside himself with ecstasy.”— Concerning Music and Dancing as Aids to the Religious Life: from The Alchemy of Happiness, Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), translated by Claud Field.

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Source: The Ismaili

EnvirO: Polar bears at risk, climate deal needed -Norway

An international plan is needed to rescue polar bears and their icy Arctic habitat but its success will hinge on a U.N. deal to fight global warming due to be agreed in December, Norway said on Tuesday.

“Climate change has overtaken hunting as the most significant threat to the polar bear,” Norway’s Environment and Development Minister Erik Solheim told a meeting of the five states rimming the Arctic where the white bears live. “We must work to protect the ecosystem the bear is part of,” Solheim said. “Global warming must be stopped if we are to succeed.” Solheim urged the three-day meeting — the first time the range states have met since 1981 — to agree on a joint action plan for saving the polar bear, including cooperation on research and management of the species.

The meeting in the Norwegian town of Tromsoe within the Arctic Circle is the first since 1981 to bring together the states that are home to polar bears — Norway, Russia, Canada, the United States and Danish-administered Greenland. The five agreed in 1973 to protect the bear and its habitat at a time when human hunters were its only known enemy. But the melting of the polar ice is now the biggest threat to the world’s 20,000-25,000 polar bears, experts say. Though they are excellent swimmers, the great white carnivores are not fast enough to catch seals, their main prey, in open water. Their survival depends on catching seals on ice, which is shrinking fast. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified the polar bear as a vulnerable species on its Red List of Endangered Species in 2005. Arctic sea ice shrank in 2007 to its smallest since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, raising the prospect that it could vanish in summers.

Though climate change is the main risk to the bear, Solheim said the species’ habitat is also threatened with destruction through pollution, human disturbance and hunting. He said rapid reduction of sea ice can also trigger other mechanisms, such as a release of methane from the Arctic tundra or accelerate the melting of glaciers on Greenland. “This could have dramatic effects for people’s living conditions all over the world,” he said. “We must send a clear message to the climate meeting in Copenhagen that it must hurry to stop and reverse the rising of temperatures and melting of ice in the Arctic,” Solheim said.
More than 190 governments will meet in Copenhagen in December to agree a new global accord to replace the Kyoto pact.

Source: Reuters

Focus: Bike4Life 2008

Cycling the open road

Sixty-nine cyclists aged 18 – 58 pushed themselves to their limits in late December 2008. Travelling from as far away as Canada, France, Holland, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, they gathered to participate in Bike4Life — a rigorous six-day, seven-night adventure, in which they cycled 550 kilometres from Mumbai to Goa along the Konkan Coast. Their journey was motivated by a desire to help communities around the world benefit from the work of Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS).

In preparation for the event, participants spent months raising funds and spreading awareness of FOCUS’ work in their home countries. They organised gatherings and activities for friends, family and colleagues that highlighted the humanitarian and disaster management achievements of the agency.

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Gmail Gets A Panic Button

Have you ever sent an email, and just as it was going on its merry way, you realize you misspelled something or you sent it to the wrong person. This happens to me a lot on Gmail because sending an email is not always instant. And you have more chances to experience email regret as you are waiting for one to send.

Well, now you can take advantage of that delay to “undo” the message. (Not to be confused with Gmail Goggles, which is geared more at preventing drunken emails from ever being sent out in the first place). Just enable the feature in Gmail Labs in Settings (Scroll down, it is not at the top for some reason). It only works during that 5 second delay between the time you hit send and the time that Gmail actually sends the message.

What I like about this option is that it turns a bug into a feature. Gmail is really too slow, but now you can occasionally use that to your advantage

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Discovery astronauts install solar wings

Reporting from Cape Canaveral, Fla. — Two U.S. astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station on Thursday on a six-hour spacewalk to install a 31,000-pound girder with solar wings, completing the final piece of the complex’s structural backbone.

It was the first of three spacewalks scheduled during shuttle Discovery’s mission to the station, and the main objective of its 13-day trip.The $300-million girder is the last major American-made piece of the space station. Tucked inside the framework of the truss is the final set of folded-up solar wings that will bring the 10-year-old space station to full power — crucial for boosting science research and doubling the crew on the space lab to to six this year. Astronauts Steve Swanson, a veteran of two previous spacewalks, and Richard Arnold, who completed his first jaunt in the void of space, helped align the truss while John Phillips, who was inside the station, used a robotic arm to lower it into place on the starboard end of the station.

Wielding a high-tech ratchet wrench, Arnold then linked the new segment with the starboard end of the truss. Space station commander Mike Fincke thanked Arnold and Swanson at the end of their spacewalk for adding a new addition to the station and finishing the job 23 minutes ahead of schedule. “I just wanted to say welcome back aboard the space station. It’s a lot bigger than when you left it,” he told them as they climbed back into the airlock. “Great job out there. You guys were outstanding.” The new solar wings will be unfurled Friday. The last time solar wings were opened on the station in 2007, one snagged on a guide wire and ripped, forcing spacewalking astronauts to carry out emergency repairs.

NASA officials said they had learned their lessons. The latest 115-foot wings will open a small section at a time, and Mission Control in Houston will make sure there is optimal lighting when the procedure takes place. Sun glare contributed to the 2007 mishap; it prevented the astronauts from quickly noticing that the wing had torn. The wings carried up aboard Discovery are actually the oldest; they were used for testing on the ground. Because they have been packed in boxes for as long as eight years, some of the pleated panels might stick together. The astronauts have techniques to work around that, if necessary.

Discovery arrived at the space station Tuesday; it will remain until Wednesday

Source: BBC

With Adamo, Dell May Also Boost Earlier Efforts

The “Adamo by Dell” brand, launched March 17 with the Adamo laptop, is aimed at style-minded customers who might otherwise have eyes for the Apple MacBook Air or Lenovo ThinkPad. Can Dell’s sexy new look retroactively bring panache to its earlier offerings as well?
After some teasing and waiting, the Dell Adamo was made available yesterday, touted by Dell as the “world’s thinnest laptop.” The Adamo—milled from a single piece of aluminum and featuring a tempered glass, high-definition display—is 0.65 inches thin and weighs 4 pounds.

Dell made a point of acknowledging the precision craftsmanship that went into creating the Adamo laptop—an entrée into a new, and clearly very stylized, “Adamo by Dell” brand—with which the company hopes to attract style-minded consumers.

“It’s an attempt to deliver an extremely high-end, premium brand that sets it apart from competitors,” said John Spooner, a senior analyst with Technology Business Research. “It’s a statement. It’s Dell saying, ‘Hey, we can design sexy just as well as the other guys.”

Some question whether Adamo is more about an image refresh for Dell than actual sales, but Spooner says it’s both. “These days $2,000 is awfully expensive for a notebook, but they definitely expect for it to be profitable, and to sell a reasonable number of units,” he said.
There’s also the hope, he explained, of a halo effect, where people are brought in by one product and wind up buying another. “The Dell XPS 13 weighs slightly more but costs about half as much.” Not to mention those leather accents.

With the Adamo, Dell is competing for such customers against the likes of Apple’s MacBook Air—which also has a 13-inch display, is 0.76 inches thin and weighs 3 pounds. Steve Jobs introduced it in January 2008 at the Macworld Expo as “the world’s thinnest computer.” At its thinnest point, it measures 0.16 inches. Dell’s introductory materials to the Adamo state: “At the thickest point, Dell’s Adamo is thinner than any other laptop.” “Dell has advanced the ball a little bit,” said Spooner. “Apple’s already been there, but Dell’s followed up, and it is thinner, though not lighter.”

Adamo, he said, is aimed at the customer who would be interested in the MacBook Air or the Lenovo ThinkPad. “People who are after the sleekest design and want to make a statement, ‘Hey look at me!’”

Source: e-Week

Samsung launches movies to mobiles service

Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd launched a service allowing its customers to buy or rent movies and TV series to download to their mobile phones. The breadth of Samsung’s offering, which includes over 500 blockbusters from top studios Warner Bros MTWX.N, Paramount and Universal, makes it competitive with other mobile media offerings from Apple Inc and Nokia Oyj.

Samsung Movies, a dedicated virtual store for Samsung customers, launches initially in Britain and Germany and will extend to other key European markets later in the year, Samsung said in a statement. The service, which features films such as “The Dark Knight” and TV series including “E.R.” and “Friends,” will be compatible only with video-enabled Samsung phones such as its new Tocco Ultra Edition. Samsung plans to expand the service to notebooks, MP3 and MP4 portable music players and Samsung TVs.

Samsung Movies will use technology from privately owned digital movie retailer Acetrax, which holds agreements with film studios and music labels. Prices start at 2.49 pounds ($3.55) for a 24-hour rental or 4.99 pounds to buy a movie. Samsung said it would double its titles to 1,000 by the end of the first quarter and again to 2,000 movies and TV shows by the end of June.
UK-based research firm CCS Insight said in a note: “The move is tangible progress in (Samsung’s) convergence strategy and a first step in delivering consumer services to rival those from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Source: Reuters