by Komoneed | Dec 3, 2024
Every month, the Good On You team scours the internet to bring you the sustainable fashion and beauty news that matters. Here’s what you need to know in December 2024. Why Former H&M CEO Helena Helmersson Joined Circulose (Vogue Business) Six months after going into administration, the business formerly known as Renewcell (now called Circulose […]
The post 10 Things to Know in Sustainable Fashion and Beauty This December appeared first on Good On You.
by Komoneed | Dec 3, 2024
Following its win in October at the Australian Water Association (AWA) Victorian Water Awards, Victorian utility South East Water has netted two more awards at this year’s Asian Water Awards, held in late 2024.
The utility’s Hydrotrak Geofencing technology received the Water Technology Excellence (Research and Development) – Australia award, as well as the Water Technology Excellence (Water Resource Management) – Australia award, at the Asian Water Awards.
Developed by South East Water’s Research and Development and Operational Technology teams, the Hydrotrak Geofencing System uses GPS location devices integrated with GIS spatial data of its network and hydrants to automatically detect the location of a vehicle when it is stopped at a hydrant for a tanker-filling operation.
The device then automatically sounds an audible alarm, prompting the driver to push the fill button, which generates billing data.
Since deploying the system in December 2022 to over 300 water carter vehicles, South East Water said it has recovered more than 65 ML of water that was previously unaccounted for, reducing both water and revenue loss.
South East Water’s General Manager of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, Daniel Sullivan, said the solution played an important role in driving long-term water security and South East Water’s financial sustainability.
“HydroTrak helps us account for water extraction from our hydrants, providing improved financial outcomes at a time when customer affordability is a challenge,” he said.
“It resolves a common industry problem — the inability to detect and charge water carters for their hydrant use. Historically, this has resulted in significant water and revenue loss for water utilities, with these losses needing to be absorbed by customers.”
South East Water said it is working with a number of interested organisations to facilitate industry-wide adoption of the Hydrotrak Geofencing System. The utility anticipates that larger-scale adoption of the technology could provide better financial outcomes for the industry.
“Understanding water carter consumption will allow for better demand forecasting, resource planning and management. This will translate into numerous community-wide benefits like better, fairer prices for customers,” Sullivan explained.
Image credit: iStock.com/yotto
by Komoneed | Dec 3, 2024
This post was originally published on UNDPCOP29 Must Set New Global Climate Finance Target, Says UNDP Adaptation Head kate.smith@undp.org Mon, 12/02/2024 – 05:53 Empowering communities, fostering innovation and integrating socio-economic contexts into climate...
by Komoneed | Dec 3, 2024
Norway agreed on Sunday to stop the first round of licensing for Arctic deep-sea mining following pressure from the Socialist Left Party (SV), reported The Guardian. The small leftwing party refused to support the government’s budget if it did not halt deep-sea mining exploration licenses scheduled for next year. “This puts a stop to the […]
The post Ocean Advocates Celebrate ‘Huge Win’ as Norway Pauses Deep-Sea Mining Plans appeared first on EcoWatch.
by Komoneed | Dec 1, 2024
Today, more than ever, enzymes and microorganisms are being used to increase sustainable production. This is particularly true in industries such as pharmaceuticals and (bio)chemicals. In these and other industries, researchers within universities, R&D organisations and other institutes, as well as within industry want to know under which conditions these biological cells grow. While it is essential and important to know how and under what conditions they grow faster, researchers need the full story. That means they are just as interested in what makes them grow slower or abnormally. It is also essential to learn about the influence of nutrients or additives to understand the underlying biological processes.
For research organisations the accurate measurement and control of low flows of liquids and gases is often required. What is low flow? The real values will be application dependent but might be as low as 0.014 to 0.7 mL/min of N2 to around 600 kg/h in liquid applications.
Bronkhorst excels in this arena and their customers are many and varied. In the area of biological cell growth, for one recent application the organisation sought to learn more about the conditions under which a population of microorganisms will grow. Flow control was used to give an accurate and steady flow of aqueous liquid while they varied an array of other parameters.
It was essential for them to investigate under which conditions a population of microorganisms can grow. For this they would vary one typical parameter, whilst other parameters, such as temperature, pressure and nutrient concentration, needed to be kept constant.
For this recent application, a research organisation contacted Bronkhorst. They had an application where they were struggling to stabilize the low flow in an aqueous stream — in this case their range was 30 to 200 mL/min. They had two reactors that needed to be kept in balance. They had tried to find a balance but were regularly emptying one of the reactors. To that end, their desire was that the liquid levels of two reactor vessels containing these microorganisms needed to be accurately and repeatably kept at a stable, constant value using flow control.
After consideration, Bronkhorst supplied two of their liquid mass flow instruments. In this case it was their mini CORI-FLOW series. The CORI-FLOW series uses the Coriolis effect which was first postulated as an explanation of the deflection of flowing air moving in a rotating system. In fact, the Coriolis effect is a mass inertia effect. A Coriolis-based mass flow meter is particularly suitable when you want to measure the mass flow of varying or unknown gas or liquid mixtures or for measuring supercritical gases. Besides measuring direct mass flows which eliminates inaccuracies due to the physical properties of the fluid, these devices are highly accurate and have a high repeatability. The Coriolis flow meter is the ultimate flexible, reliable and extremely accurate flow meter.
In this application, each CORI-FLOW was inserted in the circulation system in between the reactor vessels, with the aim to provide a continuous flow of aqueous liquid.
The main reactor was approximately 1 litre and the researchers allowed the micro-organisms to grow in the reactor within an aqueous environment. Regular sampling of the main reactor gave them information of the number of cells and the cell growth rate. The researchers also identified temperature as an important parameter. Too low temperatures will hold back the microorganisms and slow or stop them from growing, and too high temperatures are detrimental to the longevity of the microorganisms themselves.
For this sophisticated application, the liquid mass flow instrument with a control valve provides a signal to a control unit. That control unit is ‘in charge’ of a pump. The pump speeds or slows in response to the flow measurement and the control action, making for a very precise flow in this line. From there the liquid then flows from the main reactor to a second reactor. In this case the second reactor is much smaller than the main reactor and has a volume of about 200 mL. Using the same methodology, the fluid is again moved via the direct control pump scenario, described above, back to the main reactor. What is now set up is a continuous circulation, in which the flow is very steady. The process continues day and night for as long as the research requires.
While it sounds like smooth sailing, a further complication was identified. The microorganisms in this experiment were approximately 3 μm diameter. That provided a further challenge as all the microorganisms needed to be kept alive and they needed to be in perfect health (without any damage) during the process of circulation. For this Bronkhorst advised the researchers to use peristaltic pumps in their process to keep their microorganisms fit and healthy.
The Control Unit/s and setpoints were run within the research organisation’s systems; however, it was further determined that, in this application both the flow controller and pump combinations would best have the same capacities. This simplified the operation and helped the levels in both reactors remain at the same, stable value.
Bronkhorst’s flow meter range includes:
Thermal Mass Flow meters & controllers for gases and liquids
Coriolis Mass Flow Meters & Controllers for gases and liquids
Ultrasonic Meters for liquids
Pressure Controllers for gases and liquids
Control Valves and Control Electronica and accessories
In this case the correct flow meter was a Coriolis-based mass flow meter. This technology is particularly suitable when you want to measure the mass flow of varying or unknown gas or liquid mixtures or for measuring supercritical gases. The fundamental theory for a Coriolis meter is direct mass flow measurement. There are no estimations or assumptions or inaccuracies due to the physical properties of the fluid. A CORI-FLOW from Bronkhorst is thus highly accurate and they have high repeatability. For many users, the Coriolis flow meter is the ultimate flexible, reliable and extremely accurate flow meter.
The original article was published as an Application Note by Bronkhorst High-Tech B.V.
