Although hydroelectric stations have provisions for stopping fish passage or attractive fish around turbines a small portion go through the hydroelectric turbine. Typically the turbines wins. A new turbine type called an Eco-Bulb turbine handles this problem nicely while improving effeciency. By combining the turbine and generator into one housing (the bulb) many traditional problems with hydroelectric power is mitigated. The new turbines are more effecient, can be used at sites that couldnt be developed before such as old dams that have small flows of water and are fish friendly. Currently the only site in North America with this technology is at Trenton, Ontario at an old dam site that had been adandoned.
Author: Cam Proctor
Bio Lube
Probably not what you were hoping for, but the hydroelectric industry has recently been experimenting with lubrication using biologically degradable oils from natural sources. When a hydroelectric turbine is in operation it must be well lubricated or else friction and instability are created which shake and therefore damage both the turbine and casing. However, a small portion of the oil inevitably leakes into the water. Although less than the waste oil from a motor vehicle the hydroelectric industry is experimenting with biodegrabalbe oils with regulations the threat of fines or enforcement. A hydroelectric industry spokesman commented that bio lube is simply a choice since they work as well as conventional lubes and the industry does not have to worry about spills. With future advancements bio lube could be converted to higher temperature operations such as oil inside a car engine.
Third World First?
There arent that many things you expect to see unvieled in third world countires for their first global appearance. Luckily the Institute for OneWorld Health aims at reversing this trend for life saving drugs. With a business model thats a capitalists nightmare, the institute is a non profit organization that aims at developing drugs and other medicines specifially for third world diseases, at an affordable price. Currently their most promising drug is against visceral leishmaniasis, a disease spread by the bite of an infected sand fly that is associated with fever, weight loss, enlargement of the spleen and liver, and anemia. If left untreated, it is fatal to up to 200,000 people a year. It very encouraging to know serious funds directed towards common diseases that affect large numbers of people of little income are finally being addressed.
Hydrogen at Point of Use
A Canadian inventor/business man has come up with a reliable way to kick start the hydrogen economy. Most pundits against our hydrogen future claim safety concerns and large infastructure changes to covert our fuel sources to hydrogen. Plus we still need the electical energy to produce the hydrogen. Produce, store, transport, sell, store again and end use. An energy intensive process, and one that is quite shortened with a electrolysis hydrogen generator that small and cheap enough to be plced in the car. Using only distilled water electronics within the car breaks down the water into hydrogen and oxygen for use directly powering the car. The advantage being its safer since only enough hydrogen is produced for the time of use and it eliminates storage, transportation and infastructure.
See the full story in the Montreal Gazette
Crops that Survive!
The fundamental ineffeciency if farming has always been that crops die at the end of season. This requires huge investments in organic matter removal, tillage, replanting and large quantaties of fertilizer, water and pesticides. The top 25 producing crops in the world are annuals but researchers at the lands institute want to change all that by switching to perrenial crops modelled after prarie grasslands. Grasslands are the most effecient self regulating ecosystems on the planet, requiring little input of materials, with incredible resilence to harms.
Researchers have been able to create stable ecosystems that requires less than 1/100 of the energy and inputs (no pesticides required the plants take care of themselves) with yields comparable to least productive farmland nowadays. The big difference being the land institute farms are sustainable the least productive farmlands exponentially require more resources and are suseptible to collapse.