Engineering plays a vital role in the protection and conservation of the environment. Various engineered devices have been used for the environmental benefits but I feel that engineering is being under-utilised for the benefit of the environment. There is a lot of scope and potential in engineering which can be tapped for ultimate benefits to the environment and overall global economy. Through this report, I would highlight few recent advancements in engineering and technology in the area of energy, waste water management, air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, radiation protection, waste management, recycling and other aspects of environmental sustainability.
4 ways artificial intelligence (AI) is contributing to the energy industry AI will play a pivotal role in many types of industries including the energy sector. The following methods are some areas that AI is currently making a contribution to Energy: 1: Supply and DemandGrowth Growth of distributed energy resources from a variety of small and large-scale energy producers makes it challenging for grid operators to keep the supply and demand of electricity balanced. This is where AI can help. Google's 'Deepmind' is at the early stages of predicting peak demands and helping the national grid in the UK take advantage of its energy mix of solar and wind. Google's objective is to cut energy consumption by 10% for the national grid. 2: Environmental Impact Coal plants are being phased out and replaced with solar & wind plants, however, they will continue to remain in the energy mix in the near future. Lets take a glance at Xcel Energyand how they use AI to reduce nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions on their coal plants. They have equipped their smoke stacks with an AI neural network that can quickly analyze the data from the dynamics of the coal combustion. This system then makes recommendations on how to adjust the operations of the plant to reduce emissions while keeping the plant operating at peak efficiency. 3: Customer Experience Through Machine Learning Machine learning has improved customer experience by personalization; aligning product and services based on the customers wants and beliefs. For example, a person that visits an energy retailer's website whom has strong sustainability belief is provided options to purchase electricity that comes from a renewable energy source. Once the retailer has a good understanding of consumer behavior they can dynamically service the customer accordingly to improve the buying experience. 4: IoT Emerging technologies such as the Nest Thermostat helps to reduce energy consumption in homes by learning patterns of energy consumption and dynamically adjusting the household's energy use, reducing the consumer's electricity bill. Next, the thermostat monitors what part of the day and season you turn the heater or AC on and what time of the day you're not at home, which turns the system off. This same energy efficiency idea is applied across a fleet of commercial buildings. Companies with multiple locations control their energy consumption through AI enabled IoT devices. What's next expected from AI? Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy and poised to revolutionize the energy market. AI deep learning paired with distributed energy resource, smart meters, and battery storage will build what the department of energy calls a "smart grid", paving the way for more microgrids in many jurisdictions. Companies like Pluto AI are building platforms for water facilities to reduce energy consumption, predict asset performance, and minimize operating costs. Robot rubbish recycler: 'Magpie' system sorts out all household waste at the plant. The 'Magpie' system in England, separates materials at the local rubbish plant, after waste has been picked up.
It is set to make recycling easier and more effective, while also reducing the number of bins blighting our streets. All non-food waste collected from the kerbside – including plastics, glass, metal and paper – is taken to the plant then hauled on to a huge conveyor belt, similar to an airport luggage carousel. As the waste passes around the belt, an infra-red beam scans its molecular structure and relays the data back to the Magpie's brain. The machine works out what type of material it is, and counts the number of similar items. For example, water bottles made of thick plastic will be flagged up differently from mixed plastics used in packaging. Once the Magpie has identified a number of the same items, it automatically activates powerful air jets, which propel the items down the correct tube for recycling. It is all done robotically, with no manual sorting, and the waste is processed at an impressive rate of five tons per hour. It will enable new types of packaging – currently thrown away – to be recycled, including yogurt pots, margarine tubs and other mixed plastics. And it has been described as 'future-proof' because it can adapt to new materials which may not exist yet.
Reforesting with drones. Why not?
These drones plant trees by firing seed pods at the ground Startups are tapping into the business potential of ecosystem restoration. Climate change is a sprawling, complex problem. But there is an astonishingly simple way to make a difference: plant more trees. Trees scrub pollution from the air, reduce erosion, improve water quality, provide homes for animals and insects, and enhance our lives in countless other ways. It turns out that ecosystem restoration is also an emerging business opportunity. A new report from the World Resources Institute and the Nature Conservancy says governments around the world have committed to reviving nearly 400 million acres of wilderness — an area larger than South Africa. As countries push to regrow forests, startups are dreaming up new, faster ways to plant trees. For some innovators, like NASA veteran Dr. Lauren Fletcher, that means using drones. Fletcher said his conversion from stargazer to eco-warrior was driven by his worry about climate change, which has been dramatically worsened by deforestation. To tackle the problem, he created BioCarbon Engineering, which he describes as an ecosystem restoration company. Working with colleagues, he came up with a 30-pound unmanned aerial vehicle nicknamed 'Robin' It can fly over the most rugged landscapes on earth, planting trees in precise locations at the rate of 120 per minute. Fletcher came up with his response to the problem of deforestation by identifying a major obstacle to planting new ecosystems. He understood why forests were coming down so fast, but he was really puzzled as to why it was so hard to put them back together,? He realized very quickly that it's because the state of the art [method] at the time was really hand planters, people with a bag of saplings on their shoulder going out, day after day, and bending over every 15 to 20 seconds and planting a tree, and it's really hard, grueling work.
Fletcher thought he could do better, so he put together a team of 12 experts with backgrounds in engineering, community development, ecology, biology and remote sensing. Step one was finding the right species of tree because this is about restoration of local ecosystems. If you don't get the biology side right, then youre not a solution. Step two was building tree-planting robots. BioCarbon Engineering's fleet of drones flies ten feet off the ground, gently firing seed pods into the earth at the rate of two per second. That's fast, but what's most promising is the potential to scale. Fletcher says his goal is to plant 500 billion trees by 2050. BioCarbon Engineering isn't the only entrant into this field. Firms like DroneSeed in Seattle, Washington are developing plans to use drones to plant seeds, and already uses UAVs to spread fertilizer and spray herbicide. Autopilot for Refuse Collection Vehicles
It works for aircraft. It works for harvesters in agriculture. So why shouldn't refuse collection vehicles benefit from 'autonomous technology'?.
The Autonomous Refuse Collection Vehicle (RCV) is driven normally on the highway, but having learned the collection round (route) it is able to start and stop at the location of each waste container automatically, without the driver being in the cab. As is about to be demonstrated here in Brussels.
'Express delivery' use drones not trucks to cut carbon emissions.
The findings suggest that drones can deliver certain items faster and with less environmental impact than trucks, which form part of a transport sector responsible for around of a fifth of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from the transport of goods could be cut if drones replace trucks in some instances, researchers have found, providing an environmental edge to the push by companies such as Amazon and Google to expand drone deliveries. Drones can make a significant impact on emissions, especially now that transport is the biggest polluting sector out there. Amazon is intent on using drones to transport goods weighing less than 2.5kg, which make up a large majority of its deliveries. In December 2016, the company said it had achieved its first autonomous drone delivery, taking 13 minutes to deliver some popcorn and a TV streaming device to a customer in the UK. Companies have used Europe as a testing ground because of tight restrictions on the use of drones in the US, where the device must be controlled by a human who keeps the drone in visual line of sight.
Drone Guided Robotic Bin Collection from Volvo Project
A robot that is guided by an autonomous drone and automatically collects and empties waste and recycling bins has been developed by students from three universities working in collaboration with the Volvo Group and the waste firm Renova.
The system uses a drone on the roof of the refuse truck which scans the area and helps the robot to find the bins. To collect empty the bins and collect the waste, the driver of the refuse truck presses a button which brings the collection robot to life. Simultaneously the drone lifts off from the roof of the truck. Flying through alleyways the drone quickly finds the location of the refuse bins and communicates their positions to the robot. This is followed by automatic waste collection and emptying by the robot. In the cab, the driver is able to monitor the exact location of the robot and the emptying process. Dubbed the ROAR project (Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling), it is a collaboration between the Volvo Group, Chalmers University of Technology, Mälardalen University, Penn State University in the United States, and Renova. A video of the robot in action can be viewed below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIV6Dcj29E World's First Multi-Robot Recycling System for SITA Finland Helsinki, Finland based ZenRobotics is to install the world's first robotic waste sorting plant to use multiple robots at SITA Finland's Helsinki facility. According to system's developer, the ZRR Heavy Picker is capable of sorting objects of up to 20 kg from the waste stream, while the Fast Picker can handle objects of up to 5 kg and can do the work of up to 15 human waste sorters.
The ZRR test system, which picks raw materials from construction and demolition waste, has been run at SITA Finland since 2011. Environmental Degradation and Role of Engineers The role of engineers in saving environments and affecting the sustainable development is very important because the engineers can use creativity, technology and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. Engineers, as well, should seek to minimise adverse impact on the environment during both construction and operation phases. Engineers and ecologist need to work together more often than in past. Ecologists and other environmental scientists need to collaborate with engineers to protect and improve air, water, and overall environmental quality in order to avoid or mitigate the consequences of harmful effects of global warming and to guarantee the real sustainable development for the whole world. Sources: Popular Science 'The Guardian' newspaper IB times
Reference links:
https://www.popsci.com/drones-plant-trees
https://youtu.be/JcJ7vLwtSIM
https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/10154840431101479/
https://waste-management-world.com/a/in-depth-autopilot-for-refuse-collection-vehicles?utm_source=Waste+Management+World&utm_campaign=44aab9c8ad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ce30fc7bcc-44aab9c8ad-111897513
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/20/electronic-recycling-e-waste-2017-gadgets?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Green+Light+2016&utm_term=253874&subid=22244761&CMP=EMCENVEML1631
https://waste-management-world.com/a/worlds-first-multi-robot-recycling-system-for-sita-finland
https://waste-management-world.com/a/next-gen-robotic-sorting-system-for-heavy-weight-recycling-from-zenrobotics
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/13/drones-trucks-climate-change-carbon-emissions?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Green+Light+2016&utm_term=264389&subid=22244761&CMP=EMCENVEML1631
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2031519/Magpie-Robot-rubbish-recycler-sorts-household-waste-plant-dont-to.html
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