Environmental Technology News

A small project underway in Brazil may have big implications for forest protection in the Amazon basin. An initiative to combat illegal slash-and-burn logging relies on data recorded by sensors placed at the base of individual trees. Using a handheld device, information on the original location and size of the tree, and whether it was harvested legally, can be retrieved from the microchip. Widespread adoption of the system described in a Reuters article will help land owners who practice sustainable forestry distinguish their products from those obtained illegally. The data collected will also help eliminate fraud in illegal timber marketing

The Nanolevel from Keller America is designed for use in level measurement applications where full scale ranges are less than 10 ft W.C. The Nanolevel's ceramic capacitive sensor technology is proven to provide excellent resolution and long-term stability in full scale pressure ranges as low as 4 in. of water.

Remove VOCs and HAPs from your process exhaust with EISENMANN's patented Valveless Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers. With 99% Destruction Efficiency and 100% Uptime Guarantee, the VRTO offers industry leading performance in a small footprint.

VORANOL™ VORACTIV™ polyols can help avoid undesirable foam attributes such as:

• High cost from complex processing
• Unreliable consistency
• Unpleasant odors
• Fogging and staining

By building the amine catalyst into the polyol, foamers can streamline their formulation process, thereby reducing emissions and creating more consistent, cleaner foam.

Monroe's engineering experience and complete fabrication facility provides a single source solution for wastewater treatment equipment. Their complete in-house project management allows Monroe to provide complete custom engineered systems in the shortest amount of time.

With the launch of an innovative recycling facility, beverage cartons in Québec, Canada, are reclaimed for use in diverse plastic products. Plastic shopping bags, milk cartons, and other film waste are converted into a thermoplastic resin. The process, claimed to be the first worldwide, yields plastic granules via a thermokinetic route.

Waste Management World profiles a profitable second life transformation for a Georgia landfill. Closure of the 35 acre site was finalized with an Exposed Geomembrane Solar Cover, effectively fusing landfill cap and photovoltaic technology. The durable design will yield more than 1 MW of renewable power from about 7,000 solar panels.

For more on this subject, subscribe to GlobalSpec's e-Newsletter, DirectU2 The world of Alternative & Renewable Energy.

The ability of Octolig® to remove certain antibiotics and dyes from wastewater bodes well for more effective management and disposal of pharmaceutical wastes. A EurekAlert article indicates amoxicillin was successfully recovered from water samples by column chromatography and the commercially available material featuring polyethyldiamine moieties covalently attached to silica gel.

An adsorbent capture scheme based on potassium carbonate promises to reduce carbon capture costs. The process cited in The Engineer also removes sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides from flue gas. Video highlights this and other carbon capture and sequestration R&D efforts of the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies.

Lovibond®'s new RCMSi technology (Remote Calibration & Maintenance Service via internet). This unique feature allows a calibrated measurement to be taken using a series of ISO 17025 certified liquid standards. The spectral response is transmitted to The Tintometer Ltd's secure calibration server in the UK.

GE Analytical Instruments' new Sievers 5310 C On-Line Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyzer was designed specifically for the municipal drinking water market. The 5310 C On-Line enables continuous monitoring of raw and finished water TOC for plant optimization, USEPA compliance reporting, and distribution security monitoring applications.

Urbanization pressure in Riyadh over the last 30 years saw the Wadi Hanifa turn into a toxic landfill and sewer for the Saudi Arabian city. Video documents how Canadian architects transformed the 75 mile long valley back into an oasis. The award-winning project entailed wastewater bioremediation, reforestation, and parkland creation.

The term 'hazardous waste' conjures images of toxic spills and dumps. Space debris is also viewed as a form of hazardous waste endangering satellite and manned missions. The RAND think tank proposes a Superfund-type response: space polluters pay for cleanup while steps are taken to prevent future cosmic clutter.

The precision of noise mapping, as required by the European Noise Directive for railways, roads, and airports, will benefit from a microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-microphone-based measurement system. Field and laboratory trials with the Distributed Remote Environmental Array & Monitoring System in the UK demonstrate performance consistent with conventional instrumentation.

If you find this subject interesting, subscribe to the GlobalSpec e-Newsletter, DirectU2 The world of Shock, Vibration & Noise.

Potentially hazardous substances in drinking water supplies are detected in minutes with a biosensor developed in Germany. Bacterial strains produce a fluorescing protein in the presence of ng/l waterborne toxin concentrations. Networks of these sensors, which also include mammalian cells to extend the reaction range, could guard water distribution systems.

Air Clear installs Catox on coating process and returns heat to dryers. The combination of pre-heater, secondary exchanger, and exotherm from oxidized voc's results in a system that's nearly energy independent during production, reducing capital and operating costs and teaming up to create a win-win scenario, which is precisely what occurred at a coating manufacturer.

Monitoring gaseous effluents is important in many areas, such as industrial manufacturing, coal-fired power plants, chemical and plastics production, etc., in order to quantify air pollution. Rigaku Application Report #1061 details the analytical performance achievable with the new Rigaku NEX CG Cartesian Geometry benchtop EDXRF spectrometer.

Submit your proposal to speak at one of GlobalSpec's upcoming online conferences and trade shows.

• Environmental Technology
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Events are open to GlobalSpec's six million registered users and are an opportunity for you and your company to be viewed by your target audience, competition, and peers as industry thought leaders. Increase brand awareness. Influence key decision-makers. Learn more or submit your proposal here.

You probably didn't need to print out that last PDF you received. To prevent wasting paper, and to relieve pressure on tree plantations, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) created the WWF file format. With this complimentary software now available for the Mac operating system, PDFs can no longer be printed because the print function is blocked. Watch the video and decide whether to prevent or persist in printing.

Sometimes doing good for goodness' sake needs a little incentive. The Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge 2011 offers a €500,000 grand prize to the inventor of the best greenhouse gas-reducing product or service submitted. A $1 million prize will go to the team demonstrating innovative oil spill cleanup technology in the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge. Contribute technology in the environmental, health, and other fields that benefit humankind and vie for the Rolex Awards For Enterprise.

To Print or Not to Print?

Will you use WWF's complimentary software to conserve paper and avoid printing PDFs?