Elinor Mills | Nov 23, 2009
Projects that turn slaughterhouse waste into energy and fertilizer, and zinc oxide from fuel cells into fertilizer, as well as programs to fortify rice with nutrients, feed Indian children, and boost wages for artisans were honored Thursday night at the
Tech Awards for technology benefiting humanity.
Dr. Joseph Adelgan's Cows for Kilowatts program won the Tech Awards 2009 Intel Environment Award. The project turns slaughterhouse waste into fertilizer and cooking gas.
(Credit: Elinor Mills/CNET)
Established in 2001, the Tech Awards recognize 15 laureates in the categories of education, equality, environment, biosciences economic development, and health. One laureate in each category receives a US$50,000 cash prize. The winners were announced at a ceremony at which Al Gore, former U.S. vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, received a humanitarian award.
The Intel Environment Award went to the Cows to Kilowatts project, which Dr. Joseph Adelgan conceived of after realizing that people in his hometown of Ibadan, Nigeria, were being exposed to high levels of Salmonella, E.coli and other disease-causing microorganisms from waste runoff from the local slaughterhouse that ended up in surface water and groundwater.
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Sharon Vaknin | Nov 12, 2009
This is Dishaw's newest piece, titled "Blazer Pentium 1.0" as it's mainly composed of Intel parts. (Credit: Gabriel Dishaw)
Humans have a nasty habit of producing and accumulating garbage, but
Gabriel Dishaw, a junk-metal genius from Carmel, Ind., turns trash into artwork. His most recent pieces were inspired by his love of Nike shoes, as he fashioned five different kicks, including dunks and high tops.
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This radio-controlled model car is powered by a battery that can be refilled with an electrolytic fluid.
(Credit: Fraunhofer Institute)
Imagine that you're driving your future electric car down the road, and it
gives you a low battery warning. What do you do? Instead of spending a few hours
at a recharging station, new battery technology being developed by the
Fraunhofer Institute in Germany would let you pull into a service station and
refill the battery with an electrolytic liquid.
The Fraunhofer Institute is using a redox flow battery, a type of cell that
uses two electrolytic fluids exchanging protons through a membrane. This process
generates electricity. Although this type of battery isn't new, the Fraunhofer
Institute improved the energy density, making it equivalent to that of a lithium-
ion battery.
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