Joseph Caleb Philipps from Universal Infrastructure Innovations presented on the topics “Structural Space Elements.” Access to the conference paper can be found here:
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ASCEND 2020, Powered by AIAA
16-18 November, 2020
“WHAT IS ASCEND? ASCEND is for risk-takers, disruptors, and innovators. It is the most forward-thinking space conference in the world. Launched by AIAA, ASCEND brings together the right people to discuss fundamental questions and deliver solutions that will advance the global space community. We combine technical and non-technical content in a highly engaging and intentional way so attendees can play an active role in contributing to the building of our off-world civilization. ASCEND is the conference of the future and a can’t-miss experience!”
Economical Renewable Energy for more Independent States
The widespread adoption of renewable energy is not only a good indication of a change in popular thinking, but also highlights an increasingly economical and efficient way of generating electricity. A major Missouri utility, Ameren, has just announced an addition to the state’s renewable energy resources with a 400-megawatt wind farm. The long-term benefits of these projects have made them more and more attractive.
Renewable energy, for a state like Missouri, is a path towards energy independence. Traditional sources of energy come from imported coal, whereas renewable energy systems could potentially be developed within the state, thus reducing future imports. Does it make sense for states to be more energy independent?
From the related article:
Ameren to establish state’s largest wind farm in northeast Missouri
Ameren announced an agreement Monday to move forward with a 175-turbine wind farm in northeast Missouri — which, when constructed, would be the largest in the state.
The St. Louis-based electric utility expects the project to break ground in summer 2019 in Adair and Schuyler counties. The 400-megawatt wind farm will be built by an affiliate of the utility-scale renewable energy company, Terra-Gen, and acquired by Ameren after its completion.
Ameren — which generates about two-thirds of its electricity from an aging fleet of coal-fired power plants — hailed the announcement as its “first major step” in realizing the renewable energy goals outlined in a 20-year outlook it submitted to state regulators last year.
Contact U.I.I. if you’d like to partner in more renewable energy studies!
Rural Recycling
Recycling has many clear benefits. These benefits include reuse of material, decreased landfill volumes, reduced impact on natural resources, and much more. Recycling can be relatively easy in urban environments that likely have recycling centers incorporated into everyday infrastructure, however, rural communities oftentimes may not have the same level of recycling infrastructure. In this case, recycling for some may seem not only uneconomical, but also counterproductive. Transport of recycled goods in some cases may require more energy than that saved through recycling. How can these problems be resolved for rural communities?
The key to increased recycling, in most all cases, is to make recycling easier and even cheaper than the alternative. This is often accomplished by locating recycling infrastructure alongside the normal waste infrastructure. In this case, there is no more energy needed to recycle. However, in rural communities, there may not even be a waste service at all! In communities that may not have a recycling service, perhaps community organizations could fund one. Many waste management companies will provide, with a fee, a large recycling receptacle. If conveniently placed next to a location that is often visited, such as the local post office, the ease of recycling has just increased. For residents who incinerate their waste, this would reduce their weekly burden, making recycling easier than the alternative. Local businesses may also see this as both a philanthropy opportunity and a way to draw more customers to their location.
There could be many benefits to installing a local recycling center that make the project economical and productive. Consider what options are possible in your rural community!
U.I.I has been working to develop many different solutions to problems in rural communities. Contact us if your community could use help in this area!
Energy Transitions – Haiti
Many societies around the world rely on wood and charcoal for cooking fuel. In some cases, this resource is not plentiful enough to sustain the population growth. This can lead to environmental problems in the form of deforestation and erosion. Furthermore, the particulates that are inherent to the wood smoke are oftentimes inadequately ventilated. This can lead to harmful health effects over a lifetime of exposure. Our neighbor country, Haiti, is very familiar with these issues.
The answer to these problems is not as simple as switching to electric stoves. For countries like Haiti there are people who cannot afford an electric cook stove, let alone have access to electricity. While electric stoves could be the long-term solution, what could be the next step towards this energy transition? One solution could be propane gas, also known as Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
Implementing programs and markets that make LPG available and economical could assist with an energy transition. This step could, over time, reduce the charcoal demand by creating a substitute product and a new market.
In turn, the forested areas of the country should see less pressure from the charcoal demand, leading towards a more sustainable tree harvest rate. Higher levels of forestation would lead to better erosion control, food production, cheaper charcoal, wildlife diversity, and improved air quality.
Use of cleaner burning LPG stoves would also provide health benefits by reducing particulates previously associated with cooking. Better health means more productive lives, and reduced demand on the health system.
An energy transition requires access to the LPG market and stove components. The adoption of LPG within a percentage of the Haiti population could create a balance with charcoal demand that creates a sustainable solution for the country.
From the related article:
Tackling one-tenth of Haitian deaths and helping the environment
Another approach is to tackle deforestation by reducing demand for forests to be felled. Between 70% and 95% of the energy used for cooking in Haiti comes from wood and charcoal.
…
The vast majority of Haiti – 94% of the population – cooks with solid fuels, evenly split between wood and charcoal. Nearly half cooks outdoors, more than one-third in a separate building, and 15% in the house.
The resulting air pollution is a silent killer. According to new analysis by environmental economist Bjorn Larsen, this was responsible for 8,200 deaths in Haiti last year. That is one death in ten, making it the fourth most serious health risk factor after malnutrition, unsafe sex, and high blood pressure.
…
The cheapest option is to substitute cleaner versions of the charcoal and wood-powered stoves used by Haitians today. While the benefits of just improving the status quo are relatively limited, the cost is as little as $10 or 670 gourdes, and nearly 4 gourdes of benefits would be achieved for each gourde spent.
While encouraging the adoption of LPG or ethanol would be much more expensive, the health benefits are 1.5 to two times higher, and thus this is the only real longer-term solution.
More than 4,150 deaths could be avoided annually by full adoption of LPG or ethanol. Non-health benefits include a reduction in wood collection time and fuelwood savings as high as 6000 gourdes per year for some households that switch.
But large-scale roll-out of cleaner cookstoves has had very limited success so far. A big factor is monetary: the high initial cost of the stoves and of LPG and ethanol fuel.
U.I.I. has been working to develop energy solutions for countries like Haiti. Contact us if you’d be interested in working with us on one of these projects.
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Are you a small business looking for funding to develop a new idea? Consider the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program as a possible funding mechanism! These government solicitations promote research and development for entrepreneurs to bring new products to market. These opportunities are provided to both meet our nation’s important research needs and to develop businesses that support those needs. There are a large number of new solicitations that are open for your application today. Visit the link below for more information.
Securing Critical Infrastructure with Renewable Energy
Critical Infrastructure could include facilities such as communication towers, electrical substations, hospitals, and water treatment plants. Without a steady flow of electrical power to operate these facilities, public safety could become compromised. Many of these facilities have on-site resources, such as a diesel generator, to mitigate this risk. This may work for short-term electrical outages, but what happens during a widespread outage that lasts a week or more?
An uncomfortably familiar situation such as this arose in Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma. Many areas were without power for months. What could be done to mitigate risks to critical infrastructure during these events? A great solution for securing the electrical power could be developed through renewable energy resources. These resources could be designed to provide the normal daily power for facilities, such that the electrical grid would be the back-up power, and not vice versa. Through this solution, critical infrastructure would be capable of ongoing function even when the surrounding electrical grid is down.
It is encouraging to see that one of the studies regarding Puerto Rico’s electrical grid rebuild includes focus on providing such renewable energy resources to critical infrastructure.
From the report:
Build Back Better:
Reimagining and Strengthening the Power Grid of Puerto Rico
Page 30: As natural disasters such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria occur in the future, it is imperative that critical infrastructure and remote, isolated communities can restore power to key services in a timely manner. Moreover, these critical loads may need to operate in isolation for days at a time. A large-scale investment in microgrids can pave the way for a more resilient Puerto Rico.
A microgrid is a specific section of the electric grid –representing as large an area as an entire community, down to as small an area as a single building – that has thecapability of “islanding” itself from the rest of the electricgrid and operate in isolation for hours or even days at a time, while most of the year they retain connection to the centralized grid. This is accomplished via the strategic deployment of DER such as solar, battery storage, backup generators, and control equipment.
The WG recommends pursuit of two specific deployment alternatives to harden portions of the PREPA electrical system, particularly those serving critical infrastructure and loads:
• Critical infrastructure such as hospitals, police and fire stations, emergency shelters, critical communications infrastructure (i.e., cellphone towers), water treatment plants, airports, sea ports, telecommunication centers, commercial centers, and industrial centers could operate in isolation and provide much-needed services to Puerto Ricans immediately after a natural disaster. Industrial, airport, sea port, commercial, and telecom sites may be considered, first as an expense to those entities and second, as an alternative to the recommendations provided should implementation become untimely. The installation of onsite backup generation, combined heat and power systems (CHP), rooftop solar, battery storage, and building energy management systems at strategically located sites can create a series of self-powered, autonomous centers to help the local communities recover in the immediate aftermath of a storm.
• Remote communities that are more difficult to return to service after an outage, or that are served by a single utility line, could remain disconnected from the grid while still providing much-needed electricity to both critical infrastructure as well as local grocery stores, gas stations, and community centers. The installation of solar, battery storage, feeder automation control systems, load control equipment, and similar technologies could allow for these communities to more quickly recover from natural disasters.
Here at U.I.I., research regarding the integration of renewable energy resources for the security of critical infrastructure has been under development. If you are interested in research on this subject, contact us!
Trash-Free Water Systems
It is very common to hear environmental concerns regarding our oceans and rivers. There are many disheartening pictures that capture the volume of trash floating in these ecosystems. These are environments where people swim, kid’s play, fish live, and food is gathered. What can you do to help restore these water systems?
One major solution is litter control. Everyone has the opportunity to pick up litter almost every day and in every place in the world. Discarded trash thrown out of a car will move towards the roadside ditch. The ditch washes down to a stream. The stream drains to a river. The river flows to the ocean. Please consider routine trash pick-ups in your neighborhood, educate each other on the consequences of litter, and pick up any trash you see before it washes away.
Here at U.I.I., there has been a lot of focus on the litter specific environmental problem. If you are interested in research on this subject, contact us!
Have a look at this article that highlights the impacts of plastics on our water systems. Plastics have great benefits, but they can also create problems if abused.
From the article:
Stemming the Plastic Tide: 10 Rivers Contribute Most of the Plastic in the Oceans
Our seas are choking on plastic. A staggering eight million metric tons wind up in oceans every year, and unraveling exactly how it gets there is critical. A recent study estimates that more than a quarter of all that waste could be pouring in from just 10 rivers, eight of them in Asia.
“Rivers carry trash over long distances and connect nearly all land surfaces with the oceans,” making them a major battleground in the fight against sea pollution, explains Christian Schmidt, a hydrogeologist at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.
The Future of Farming and Automated Farm Systems
The future of farming should be small. Smaller farms, smaller equipment, smaller financing, smaller risks. Some of the biggest challenges of modern farming is related to size, however, it is more common to see farmers focused on bigger farms, bigger equipment, bigger financing and bigger risks. This trend has led to fewer farms, fewer farmers, and a decline in rural communities. It also makes it extremely hard for an individual to begin farming on their own, and without taking massive financial risks. Would smaller systems enable a new generation of farmers?
One new approach to this problem could come in the form of automated systems. Smaller scale systems could function as a labor multiplier, and eventually they could become competitive with big farming practices. As the technology evolves, these systems will see much more widespread adoption.
Check out the link below to an open-source automated farming system called FarmBot.
Could an automated system such as this be the future of farming?
Is an expandable single system of ~$3,000 less risk than individual equipment costing ~$300,000?
Here at U.I.I., the size scaling and automation process of farm systems is an active research area. If you are interested in funding or collaborating research on this subject, contact us!
Super-capacitor Usage for Transportation and Beyond
Super-capacitors have begun widespread integration into the transportation sector. This technology is available in China for charging electric buses, it is utilized in London, United Kingdom for new double-decker buses, and is expected to be become a large part of the bus market in the United States of America. The benefits over batteries include rapid charging, increased cycle life, and lower maintanence. Batteries, however, to still hold inherent benefits of energy density and electrical storage duration. Dual battery-capacitor systems could help revolutionize automobiles, charging infrastructure, and electrical grid usage.
From the article:
A fluke breakthrough could be the missing link for an electric car age
Most see the first use for this technology not within cars, but as a key part of the charging infrastructure. “Roughly half of the population doesn’t live in a place where they can charge overnight at home,” says Tim Martin, director of Zapinamo, which is developing flexible electric charging stations. Those people need access to rapid charging facilities instead, but Martin says the national grid would struggle to supply electricity at the speeds required.
Large storage units full of supercapacitors could start popping up at service stations, to act as a buffer between electric cars and the grid. They could charge slowly, outside of peak times when electricity is cheaper, and then deliver that energy to multiple vehicles rapidly when required. “Stored energy is the only way that you can combine instantaneous power with the speed of charging that makes range anxiety go away,” says Martin.
The same approach could also be a game-changer for renewable energy. Because solar and wind are unpredictable, the electricity they generate needs to be stored so it can be released during lulls. “When everyone puts on the kettle after dinner, that sudden spike in demand has to come from somewhere,” says Cooper. At the moment, that is done mostly by pumping water uphill and running it back through turbines when energy is needed, but supercapacitors offer much more flexibility because they can respond so quickly.
“Wind, wave and solar energy is available but it is intermittent and, without storage, cannot be relied upon to meet our energy needs,” says Highgate. “This new work would transform the energy system which underpins our way of life – it is the necessary development before we and our children can have a genuinely sustainable, environmentally safe energy supply.”
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/superdielectrics-supercapacitor-electric-car-battery
Here at U.I.I., there has been an increased focus on electric vehicles. If you are interested in research on this subject, contact us!