Morgan BellEnviro-friendly plans for burning fuel and turning a city into energy
June 27th 2006 13:36
Plans to harness the pulse of a city and use it as a renewable energy source are currently in the works.
"You don't need to be a maths genius to realise that if you can harness that energy... you can actually generate a very useful power source that is currently being wasted," said Clair Price, director of Facility Architects, which is the London-based architectural firm responsible for this project, to ABC Science.
Energy will be harnessed via a number of devices, such as a staircase that will contain hydraulic or piezoelectric technology in the risers, that will convert the kinetic energy from footfalls into electricity. Another device is a wireless lighting system with components designed to have the same resonant frequency as surrounding vibrations. The resonant movement will be converted into an electrical current.
Meanwhile, a low-pollution device that burns fuel with almost zero emissions is being developed at the Georgia University of Technology, USA. This device will It burn fuel with Nitrogen Oxide emissions below 1 part per million (ppm) and Carbon Monoxide emissions lower than 10 ppm, which is a significant improvement from combustors in use today.
"We must burn fuel to power aircrafts and generate electricity for our homes. The combustion community is working very hard to find ways to burn the fuel completely and derive all of its energy while minimising emissions," said researcher Ben Zinn on the COSMOS magazine.
"Our combustor has an unbelievably simple design, and it would be inexpensive to make and inexpensive to maintain," he boasted.
"You don't need to be a maths genius to realise that if you can harness that energy... you can actually generate a very useful power source that is currently being wasted," said Clair Price, director of Facility Architects, which is the London-based architectural firm responsible for this project, to ABC Science.
Energy will be harnessed via a number of devices, such as a staircase that will contain hydraulic or piezoelectric technology in the risers, that will convert the kinetic energy from footfalls into electricity. Another device is a wireless lighting system with components designed to have the same resonant frequency as surrounding vibrations. The resonant movement will be converted into an electrical current.
Meanwhile, a low-pollution device that burns fuel with almost zero emissions is being developed at the Georgia University of Technology, USA. This device will It burn fuel with Nitrogen Oxide emissions below 1 part per million (ppm) and Carbon Monoxide emissions lower than 10 ppm, which is a significant improvement from combustors in use today.
"We must burn fuel to power aircrafts and generate electricity for our homes. The combustion community is working very hard to find ways to burn the fuel completely and derive all of its energy while minimising emissions," said researcher Ben Zinn on the COSMOS magazine.
"Our combustor has an unbelievably simple design, and it would be inexpensive to make and inexpensive to maintain," he boasted.
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