Concrete is one of the most extensively used materials worldwide — on average, more than two tons per year of the rock-like stuff is produced for every man, woman and child on Earth, making its use second only to water. And that vast amount of new concrete is responsible for somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it a significant target for improvements.

On May 12, 2009, Cleveland State University hoisted its first wind tower amplification system to the rooftop of its Plant Services Building located at the corner of Chester Ave. and E. 24th Street. The system, designed by Dr. Majid Rashidi of CSU’s Fenn College of Engineering, is a wind deflecting structure with small-scale turbines that can generate power at low wind speeds. “The operating principle of this system is based on air velocity amplification,” Dr. Rashidi explains. “When air or any fluid flows onto and around a structure, the flow stream lines assume a velocity profile according to the shape of the structure. As a result, the flow velocity may be amplified at certain locations near the structure.

Moisture damage in buildings is a familiar and frequent problem. A new product system from Trelleborg could be the solution.

Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.

The requirement to precisely and efficiently inject ethanol as a gasoline fuel blend led a refinery management company to install an in-line process pump equipped with the PumpSmart's control system from ITT Goulds Pumps unit – allowing a constant pressure to be maintained throughout the injection process.

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has developed an O-Ring material for drinking water applications that is both effective and long lasting

Wastewater treatment is a biological process, which means it uses bugs, or bacteria, to do all the work. The bugs feed on the waste matter and need oxygen to survive. Too little oxygen or too little food and the bugs begin to stress and become less effective. Too much food leads to too many bugs, which overloads the system. These crucial variable can be controlled by automation.

EPDM and Butyl membranes will keep the city of Hamburg dry. The latest project to improve the security of the city’s dike system is a runway for the Airbus A-380 aircraft facility that will be secured with membranes.

From concept to initial sale, ITT's Sanitaire launched an entirely new technology for treating wastewater in only 18 months. Municipal and industrial customers, especially in water-scarce regions, wanted a more efficient system for cleaning wastewater to use for irrigation or process water, or to discharge into streams with zero harm to the ecosystem.

Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides L.) is a perennial, tropical/sub tropical grass that has been used extensively world wide for soil erosion and sediment control and steep slope stabilisation for the last 20 years. Recently vetiver has also been used successfully for mine site rehabilitation in Australia, China, Latin America and South Africa, including stabilisation of steep slopes associated with bunds, tailings dams, and revegetation of mine tailings. Important attributes of vetiver grass are highly tolerant to: 1) Extreme acidity, alkalinity, sodicity, salinity and climatic conditions; 2) Very high levels of heavy metals, pollutants and nutrients; 3) It is sterile and has no potential to become a weed.

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is the most serious environmental problem facing the Canadian Mineral Industry today. Acid Mine Drainage results from oxidation of sulphide minerals (e.g. pyrite or pyrrhotite) contained in mine waste or mine tailings. It is characterised by acid effluents rich in heavy metals that are released into the environment. A new acid remediation technology is presented in this paper by which metallurgical residues from the aluminium extraction industry are used to construct permeable reactive barriers (PRB) to treat acid mine effluents This paper describes column tests performed to simulate a PRB constructed using BauxsolTM, a chemically and physically treated bauxite refinery residue, as a reactive material. This experimentation shows promising results in neutralizing pH and removing metals from acidic mine effluents.

TORESA has six modules: Geophysics, Hydrogeological Modeling, Processing of Satellite Images, Chemical and Mineral Identification; Environmental Soundings and Risk Assessment. The results are included in a Geographic Information System (GIS), which will provide future plans for environmental mine management. The results are presented as a digital data base on the Environmental Mining Management website (GAM).

The tidal action of the seas of the world is influenced by the rotation of the earth and the gravitational influence of the moon. There is enough energy in the world’s tidal activity to provide electricity to the planet if there is a way to harness it all.

Advancements in wind turbine technology have been growing rapidly. In the shadows of multi-megawatt wind turbines is another growing sector within this industry: residential wind. Improved airfoil designs for maximum efficiency at low wind speed, high efficiency direct drive permanent magnet alternators, improved governing methods and highly sophisticated controls and inverters now allow home owners to interface directly with utility companies or design off-grid systems. These systems are increasing energy independence, competing with current energy prices and reducing environmental impacts.

The Projeto Fotossíntese (Photosynthesis Project) promotes the rational use of water in the irrigation of intensive arable farming, and the supply of water to homes and apartment buildings. Its objective is to maximize agricultural production for each drop of water used. The method consists of evaluating the solar irradiation which gives rise to photosynthesis and generates the necessary energy for the circulation of water and nutrients inside the plants, according to the moisture conditions of the soil around the roots of the crops. The result is that water is applied in the optimum amount, and at the ideal moment for the crop being irrigated, resulting in environmental conservation.

O Projeto Fotossíntese promove o uso racional da água na irrigação de agriculturas intensivas e na irrigação caseira e condominial. Seu objetivo é obter o máximo de produção agrícola por cada gota de água utilizada. O método consiste em identificar as irradiações solares que dão origem à fotossíntese e geram a energia necessária para a circulação da água e dos nutrientes no interior das plantas, de acordo com as condições de umidade do solo na região radicular dos plantios. O resultado é a aplicação de água na quantidade e no momento ideais para o plantio que se deseja irrigar com a conseqüente preservação ambiental.

Geomagmatic technology differs from geothermal technology in that geothermal technology requires water and steam or steam under pressure for a geothermal project to take place. The word geomagmatic is not yet found in the dictionary. Additionally, geomagmatic technology requires that the installation of a geomagmatic device be calibrated in accordance with the resource available. The resource available is selected in gigawatts per cubic kilometer or (GW/Km3) The resource must always be supported by a continual reservoir of magmatic material that recharges the resource, as in the Ring of Fire. A geothermal resource needs to be developed and a rate of steam production determined. This requires two perforations as a rule. One to send millions of gallons of water down to a underground heat source and the other to return it in the form of steam to the turbines on the surface. Power Tube uses one perforation and an assembly plant manufactured unit. Therefore it can be said that a geothermal plant is always a prototype, that is why it is so costly, while a Power Tube relies only on the depth of the heat source, and the added length of the thermal riser.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) levels have been rising in the atmosphere dramatically since the beginning of the industrial revolution and particularly since post-WWII. Of these carbon dioxide is the most important. Global climate change is a major and critical consequence of increasing GHGs. The CO2 increase is driven by burning hydrocarbons as a fuel source. To minimize this impact it is necessary to capture CO2 as well as other GHG. Several strategies are discussed including pre-combustion, enhanced combustion and post-combustion approaches. No technology currently available is economic enough to gain wide implementation. Carbozyme is working on a new, high efficiency, ultra-low cost CO2 capture technology that may satisfy the price/performance requirements.

Microorganisms degrade pollutants thanks to their metabolic machin-
ery and their capacity to adapt to inhospitable environments. They are key players in remediation and site restoration, but their efficiency depends on the chemical nature of the pollutants

(structure and concentration), their availability to the microorganisms, and the physicochemical characteristics of the environment. The capacity of a microbial population to degrade pollutants in an environmental matrix (soil, sediment, sludge, wastewater, etc.) can be enhanced either by stimulating the indigenous microorganisms by adding nutrients or electron acceptors (biostimulation) or by introducing specific competent microorganisms to the local population (bioaugmentation). Many biotic and abiotic factors make bioaugmentation a relatively unpredictable strategy of bioremediation. The addition of exogenous microorganisms may be justified for the treatment of recalcitrant compounds in sites devoid of significant populations of biodegrading microorganisms. Field practice shows that under optimal local environmental conditions the rate and extent, and, sometimes, the spectrum of pollutant degradation may be enhanced upon addition of an inoculant to remediate a chemical plume. However the most successful cases of bioaugmentation occur in confined systems, such as bioreactors in which the conditions can be controlled to favour survival and prolonged activity of the exogenous microbial population.

The survival of Escherichia coli in groundwater was studied and included a literature study, a laboratory study and a field investigation. From the literature it was found that every study conducted on the survival of bacteria in groundwater, has its own limitations, resulting in variations of the prediction of the survival of microorganisms in groundwater. The survival of microorganisms is affected by a number of environmental factors such as the bacterial type, sunlight, rainfall, soil moisture and holding capacity, temperature, soil composition, pH, presence of oxygen and nutrients, the availability of organic matter and antagonism from soil micro-flora. Although many factors have been identified, it appears that many factors are still unknown. However, there is enough evidence that survival of Escherichia coli in groundwater does occur. One thing still unknown is whether Escherichia coli or other pathogens are still a disease agent after spending some time underground. From the laboratory and field investigation it is concluded that there is a decline in bacterial numbers over time; that Escherichia coli survived for more than 40 days in the laboratory; that Escherichia coli does survive in the environment; that Escherichia coli numbers in the soil are higher than in the subsurface water and that Escherichia coli can move from surface water to groundwater.