Go Green Profitably_Circular Ecology - Energy, Carbon, Water, Waste - Home

If you are,

 as we are:

Passionate about energy, carbon, water and waste.

Dedicated towards robust, innovative and value for money assessment.

Experienced resource efficiency experts.

Listed blow is a short selection of Circular Ecology's resources: Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Embodied Carbon Knowledge Hub Services Offered  Footprinting: Energy, carbon, water and waste footprints. For products, organisations, buildings (construction projects) and supply chains. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): An LCA typically assesses the full life cycle impact of a product, activity or service and against up to 18 environmental impact categories. We offer both streamlined and detailed LCA. Resource Efficiency Assessment: We draw on our LCA and footprinting background to assess resource efficiency and to make a number of recommendations for improvement. A truly resource efficient approach would conform to circular economy principles. Craig's team are developing a free Embodied Carbon Knowledge Hub, dedicated to all things embodied carbon. We hope to have the site up and running by the end of 2013 or early in 2014. Read more about theEmbodied Carbon Knowledge Hub.

Check out the website of Prof. Craig Jones and discuss any issues with him and
his team of experts @

Circular Ecology - Energy, Carbon, Water, Waste - Home:

'via Blog this'

“To produce 1 kg of paper requires more embodied energy than is requires to produce 1 kg of steel”!

Granta Design: Blog

Granta Design: Blog

About Prof. Mike Ashby

Mike Ashby is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is a world-renowned authority on engineering materials and the author/co-author of best-selling textbooks, including the recently published Materials and the Environment. Other current texts include Engineering Materials I & II, Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, Materials in Design, and Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing, and Design. He has authored over 200 papers on mechanisms of plasticity and fracture, powder compaction, mechanisms of wear, methodologies for materials selection, and the modeling of material shaping processes, among other topics. He is recipient of numerous awards and honors including Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of the American Academy of Engineering. He has been a professor at Harvard University and held academic positions in Germany and France. He is also co-founder of Granta Design and guides development of Granta’s CES EduPack.

Ashby's series entitled 

Unappreciated materials
are as always most informative and ingenious.

"Some materials catch headlines, are held in awe, but not all.  Some get little respect, despite having changed the world.  They have become commonplace, anonymous, ignored and (particularly if they are cheap) cast aside when no longer wanted.  If they had feelings, they would be hurt. This brief series of blogs is to draw attention to their plight." says Prof. Ashby. 

Ashby makes learning about materials (engineering) and their mechanical strength very easy and enjoyable and in following the  above quote and link (MATERIAL/PAPER) the reader will hopefully be motivated to read just how great a material is our common old paper.

MORE @

GRANTA DESIGN: Blog

Then in the following post you will of a surprising fact when compairing of the energy used to manufacture paper and steel.

Modular, flexible, sustainable: the future of chemical manufacturing

"Picture a chemical plant. How would you describe it? You’re probably not thinking along the lines of compact, nimble or adaptable – but that's about to change. Europe's chemical industry is innovating in order to survive and thrive in the face of rapidly changing market demands and fierce global competition. New technologies will enable the industry to manufacture products faster, more flexibly and more sustainably, and EU-funded research is providing the solutions." writes The  european Union Research & Innovation Information Centre 

Read more and remember :  compact, nimble and adaptable!

"Modular, flexible, sustainable: the future of chemical manufacturing":

'via Blog this'

12 Disruptive Technologies That Are Changing The World according to recent study by Mckinsey Global Institute, May 2013.

In a recent report McKinsey's Global Institute discusses Disruptive Technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy. It came up with a list of 12 technologies that could have a potential economic impact between $14 trillion and $33 trillion a year in 2025. According to the authors, some of this economic potential will end up as consumer surplus; a substantial portion of this economic potential will translate into new revenue that companies will capture and that will contribute to GDP growth. Other effects could include shifts in profit pools between companies and industries."

The 12 disruptive technologies include: mobile Internet, automation of knowledge and work, Internet of things, cloud technology, advanced robotics, autonomous and near-autonomous vehicles, next-generation genomics, energy storage, 3D printing, advanced materials, advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery, renewable energy.

AND

Chart showing how these technologies will affect the world:

REMARKS: 
 In many ways the conclusions reached by the McKinsey study show our insatiable taste for gadgets all be them highly innovative, and irresistible, aids at increasing our individual and collective productivity but do they truly address real world issues and the overwhelming treats of rarity or in some cases penury of resources, (minerals and easily accessible energy) , in the face of global warming and harmful pollutions?

 The operative word is perhaps that such issues are "overwhelming", truly mind boggling.

One can readily understand the collective preference for the more abstract disruptions which are highly rated and figure at the top of the list of 12, whereas energy storage so necessary for many renewable energy sources are relegated to the foot of the list.

REFERENCE:
Disruptive Technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy.

Read more.....

Technology and Innovation Centre at Strathclyde University

As an Alumi of "THE PLACE OF USEFUL LEARNING", (Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland,UK) I am obliged to shout about my Uni's place at the forefront of Innovation, in Scotland and the UK. 

I cannot help bragging of my longstanding appreciation of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Innovation. 
The latter is THE MODEL upon which Strathclyde's T&I Centre is based and is the first in the UK. Therefore I extremely pleased
 that my old outfit have come to the same conclusion a did I.

Below: Technology and Innovation Centre at Strathclyde University

                

The Technology and Innovation Centre at Strathclyde is a hub for world-leading research, transforming the way academics, business, industry and the public sector collaborate.

We are working together to find solutions to challenges that matter in areas of economic importance – including power and energy, health and manufacturing – and helping companies compete globally.

REFERENCES:

Technology and Innovation Centre_Strathclyde University,Glasgow,Scotland,UK.

Fraunhofer Institute, Germany.

"Pilot projects bury carbon dioxide in basalt." Report from Nature News & Comment_26 July 2013

 JEFF TOLLEFSON writes in Nature

"By early August, scientists will have pumped 1,000 tonnes of pure carbon dioxide into porous rock far below the northwestern United States. The goal is to find a permanent home for the carbon dioxide generated by human activities.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, began the injections into the Columbia River Basalt formation near the town of Wallula on 17 July. The rock contains pores created as many as 16 million years ago, when magma flowed across what is now the Columbia River Basin. Bubbles of CO2 migrated to the edges of the magma as it cooled, forming layers of holes sandwiched between solid rock (see 'Rock steady').

In pumping emissions back underground, “we are returning the carbon dioxide from whence it came”, says Pete McGrail, an environ­mental engineer at the PNNL who is heading the experiment, part of a larger energy-department programme on ways to sequester carbon."

KEEP-UP THE GOOD WORK LADS.
ON THE STORAGE SIDE OF THE CO2 OUTPUT ACCOUNTANCY (IN) BALANCE THE FUTURE APPEARS TO LIE IN SUCH INITIATIVES.

I WILL POST AGAIN ON REDUCTIONS ON THE PRODUCTION SIDE OF CO2 - NOT AS GOOD AS HOPED!




Read the full article freely available in The Journal Nature entitled  "Pilot projects bury carbon dioxide in basalt : Nature News & Comment" (pdf).

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Innovation, Innovations! Innovations win the 82th, 24hrs Le Mans motor race, Audi again, Toyota on the podium.

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Innovation, Innovations! Innovations win the 82th, 24hrs Le Mans motor race, Audi again, Toyota on the podium.