• The Environment

    Einstein Fridge Makes a Green Return

    By Jaya Jiwatram Posted on 9.29.2008 8 Comments

    It looks like the father of modern physics had more up his sleeve than the theory of relativity. Long after he changed the landscape of modern physics, Albert Einstein and his former student Leo Szilard patented a refrigerator that had no moving parts and used only pressurized gases for cooling. It got overshadowed 20 years later, in the 1950s, when more efficient, if environmentally-damaging, freon-compressors for refrigerators became available.

    10.2.2008 at 01:56pm - Comment by ewbray1

    When I was a small child back in the 1952 my family got rid of our old "Ice Box" and bought a gas fired refrigerator. I remember it kept the food cool with no problems. I also remember my mother and father discussing the purchase of an electric refrigerator over the dinner table a couple of years later because the price of gas had gone up and the electric refrigerator would be cheaper to operate. Funny how some of the old "technology", electric automobles and gas fired refrigerators, are making a come back with a little tweaking with modern more up-to-date components.

  • The Environment

    A Better CO2 Scrubber

    By Molika Ashford Posted on 10.1.2008 11 Comments

    Around half of our CO2 emissions aren’t from big power plants, or even small power plants, according to researchers from the University of Calgary. They’re from diffuse sources, like car exhaust, home heating and airplanes, which can’t be easily sucked up at the source. Led by climate scientist David Keith, the Calgary group is working on technology that could soak those “diffuse emissions” right out of the air. Their system is a kind of air scrubbing tower, which takes air and reacts the CO2 out of it by exposing it, in this case, to sodium hydroxide. Then the stuff goes through a few chemical intermediaries eventually leaving separated CO2 that can be piped away, and more hydroxide to feed back into the scrubber.

    10.2.2008 at 01:11pm - Comment by ewbray1

    Why not test the system out in and old Diesel-Electric submarine first to see how it will work in a closed enviornment on a long term basis. If it works there then maybe they could test it out on a ship a sea in case there is a malfunction; then CO2 won't be released in a urban area.



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