The generation of waste in the slums is one-fourth the amount of waste generated in lower-middle class and higher income households, according to a study conducted by students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with the city based SWaCH – Solid Waste Collection and Handling – a collective of wastepickers.“The daily per…Continue Reading Waste audit shows Pune slums generate little garbage
As the world moves toward greater use of low-carbon and zero-carbon energy sources, a possible bottleneck looms, according to a new MIT study: the supply of certain metals needed for key clean-energy technologies. Wind turbines, one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions-free electricity, rely on magnets that use the rare earth element neodymium. And the…Continue Reading Clean energy could lead to scarce materials
A recent analysis by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) in the USA warns that the recycling of aluminium could become a stumbling block for the industry if no steps are taken to reduce impurities that build up as it is repeatedly recycled. Aluminium engine blocks, in particular, are frequently made from metal with comparatively…Continue Reading MIT study sees growing aluminium challenge
MANY plans for reducing the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide—at least, those plans formulated by environmentalists who are not of the hair-shirt, back-to-the-caves persuasion—involve peppering the landscape with wind turbines and replacing petrol-guzzling vehicles with electric ones charged up using energy gathered from renewable resources. The hope is that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere…Continue Reading In a hole? Demand for some rare-earth elements could rapidly outstrip supply
Aluminum has long been the poster child of recycling. About half of all aluminum used in the United States is now recycled, and this recycling has clear and dramatic benefits: Pound for pound, it takes anywhere from nine to 18 times as much energy to produce aluminum from raw ore as from recycled material. Because…Continue Reading Preventing contamination in recycling
Computer chips are one area where the United States still enjoys a significant manufacturing lead over the rest of the world. In 2011, five of the top 10 chipmakers by revenue were U.S. companies, and Intel, the largest of them by a wide margin, has seven manufacturing facilities in the United States, versus only three overseas.
The most recent of those to open, however, is in China, and while that may have been a strategic rather than economic decision — an attempt to gain leverage in the Chinese computer market — both the Chinese and Indian governments have invested heavily in their countries’ chip-making capacities. In order to maintain its manufacturing edge, the United States will need to continue developing new technologies at a torrid pace. And one of those new technologies will almost certainly be an integrated optoelectronic chip — a chip that uses light rather than electricity to move data.
As chips’ computational power increases, they need higher-bandwidth connections — whether between servers in a server farm, between a chip and main memory, or between the individual cores on a single chip. But with electrical connections, increasing bandwidth means increasing power. A 2006 study by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry predicted that by 2025, information technology in Japan alone would consume nearly 250 billion kilowatt-hours’ worth of electricity per year, or roughly what the entire country of Australia consumes today….Continue Reading Microchips’ optical future