Levi Strauss has developed a new way of manufacturing jeans using less water. They are hoping to save 16 million gallons of water by spring 2011. Some are referring to them as ‘waterless jeans’. This new process can save from 28% up to 96% of water. The launch of these jeans is expected to be in January 2011 under the Levi 501, 511, and 514 brand.

Kelly Benander- Director of Corporate Communications at Levi Strauss- is quoted as saying “We took the idea of jeans that use fashion forward finishes that people love to wear such as the worn in look, creases around the pockets etc., but made with a lot less water. We went into laundries, talked to suppliers and asked how to create this.”

Washington State University in Pullman Washington has been developing what they are calling a ‘Super or Ultra Battery’.

“The researchers created the material on the Pullman campus in a diamond anvil cell, a small, two-inch by three-inch-diameter device capable of producing extremely high pressures in a small space. The cell contained xenon difluoride (XeF2), a white crystal used to etch silicon conductors, squeezed between two small diamond anvils.”

Link to WSU

I have an interesting guest posting from Jane Mcguire today:

Are you aware that a North Carolina State University team has demonstrated that water gel-based solar devices (known as: “artificial leaves”) can work like solar cells to create electricity?

The analysis has been published on-line in the Journal of Materials Chemistry by Doctor Orlin Velev, an Invista Professor of Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering.

The studies prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely simulate nature. They also have the potential to be cheaper and more eco-friendly than the present standard silicon based solar cells.

The bendable devices are composed of water-based gel infused together with light-sensitive molecules (like plant chlorophyll) coupled with electrodes coated by carbon elements, such as carbon nanotubes or graphite.

Graphene is the simple structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. Graphene is a 1-atom thick planar sheet of carbon atoms that are largely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The title comes from graphite ene; graphite itself consists of numerous graphene sheets stacked together.

The light-sensitive molecules get “excited” by the sun’s rays to create electricity, similar to plant molecules that get excited to synthesize sugars in order to grow.

Dr. Velev states that the research team hopes to be able to “learn how to mimic the materials through which nature harnesses solar energy.” Although man made light-sensitive molecules can be used, Velev says naturally derived products, like chlorophyll, are also effortlessly integrated in these units because of their particular water-gel matrix.

Velev even imagines a future in which roofs could be covered with soft sheets of similar electrical power-generating man-made-leaf solar cells. The concept of biochemically inspired ’soft’ devices for generating electricity may in the future offer an alternative for the present-day solid-state technologies.

About the Author: Colleen Jane Mcguire is currently writing for the http://www.solarwaterfountains.org blog, her personal hobby web log is focused on guidelines to help homeowners spend a smaller amount of energy with solar energy.

Reference: Aqueous soft matter based photovoltaic or pv devices. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2011; DOI: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2011/JM/c0jm01820a

Petermann Glacier in Greenland has apparently lost a huge chunk of its glacier- about 100 square miles worth. It is about 620 miles south of the North Pole. If it moves further south towards Canadian waters, it could be quite hazardous for the shipping industry.

Cornell University has installed a very innovative, yet very basic concept for cooling Ithaca High School and Cornell University. It is a closed loop system that exchanges the cool water from the depths of nearby Cayuga Lake, and expels the warm water into the shallow waters of the same lake. The water is drawn through an intake that comes from water about 2 miles out in water that is 250 feet deep, and the intake sits about 10 feet from the bottom of the lake where the temperature is about 39ºF year round.

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Bourne Energy has come up with a portable hydro electric energy source.

Packed up, it measures 3’ in length, and weighs less than 25 lbs (Type 2, BPP-2, military version). A self contained system, it has its own integrated power, control, cooling and sensor systems. It collapses into 3 major parts which fit into a round backpack. This unit produces up to 600w (depending on river current), it operates silently with no heat or exhaust emissions. These can be set up singularly or in arrays of over 20kw.

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