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Mark Komus built a solar-powered weather station that reports its recorded data to Adafruit IO, our easy-to-use IoT platform for everyone. A BME280 sensor monitors temperature, pressure and humidity. Sparkfun’s weather gauges are mounted at the top of the metal pole.
Live weather data is displayed on an Adafruit IO dashboard (public and view-able at this link). This project was also shown-off and discussed in more detail on our weekly Show and Tell this past Wednesday.
If industrialized society is determined to maintain its industrial activities, its engineers will need to completely rethink how parts are designed in order to improve energy efficiency. This is true regardless of whether or not this energy comes from fossil fuels (which must be phased out starting yesterday) or renewable sources.
For this reason, additive manufacturing (AM) may be the best technology suited for the production of these novel designs, given its ability to fabricate complex geometries impossible with other fabrication techniques. While flying will likely need to be reduced as much as possible in general, due to their contribution to energy usage, the use of AM in the aviation sector has demonstrated the outcomes possible with all energy intensive industries.
GE has performed a great deal of work to reduce fuel consumption in aircraft using AM by optimizing the strength-to-weight ratio of aircraft parts. The paradigm-shifting part in this instance is the LEAP fuel nozzle, which consolidated what was previously an assembly of 18 parts into just one. This resulted in an estimated fuel savings of 15 percent in jet engines, translating to an estimated 15 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and 50 percent reduction in NOx emissions.
The LEAP fuel nozzle designed and manufactured by GE and Safran via CFM International. Image courtesy of GE Aerospace.
In 2014, Airbus and EOS performed an environmental lifecycle analysis study that compared metal casting with AM, determining that AM used 25 percent less material. By cutting the weight of an aircraft bracket by 10 kilograms, the 3D-printed was estimated to reduce CO2 emissions of the plane by 40 percent.
An aircraft bracket that was used as the subject of the EOS/Airbus study. Image courtesy of EOS.
GE went on to develop the Catalyst turboprop engine for the Cessna Denali made up of 35 percent 3D-printed parts, which include the accelerator, a combustor swirler, a gearbox, and a large gearbox case. All of this, along with other innovations, reduce fuel burn by 20 percent and fuel consumption by 1 percent. This only translates to one percent reduction in CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, test flights for the aircraft have yet to be performed because the test engine has not yet been delivered to the aircraft manufacturer.
If successfully produced, the Catalyst engine will become a core part of a hybrid fuel system for XTI Aircraft TriFan 600 plane. Naturally, we should be skeptical of the real-world impact of these endeavors, in particular for private planes such as the TriFan 600 and the Cessna Denali, which are reserved for business use.
However, if somehow large same weight reductions could be applied across the entire structure of more commercial passenger and freight aircraft, it would be possible to see the aviation sector have a far less significant impact on our collapsing ecosystem than it currently has. Perhaps more importantly, we could see electric planes actually become viable.
A rendering of a hybrid-electric aircraft designed by Airbus, with expected first flight in 2021. Airbus has a goal of achieving zero-emissions flights by 2040. Image courtesy of Airbus.
Boom Supersonic, which is investing in 3D printing for its supersonic planes, estimates that there are over 170 programs in place to create electric aircraft. Stepping stones along the way include hybrid electric planes, such as the E-Fan X from Airbus, and retrofitting existing aircraft with hybrid engines.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that we have until 2030 to halve global greenhouse gas emissions, but research suggests that even that projection is underestimating the scope of the problem. Therefore, building new planes may not be enough to solve the problem or may even worsen it, due to the emissions associated with manufacturing and flying even hybrid aircraft.
So, as electric aircraft are constructed and limited to only necessary flights or alternative modes of transportation are deployed, other industries may be able to learn lessons from the aviation sector and apply them to their own work. An increasing number of design and simulation tools are now available to more easily optimize part design for 3D printing, potentially reducing the weight of objects regardless of application.
If the U.S. does finally deploy high-speed rail (HSR) under a Green New Deal-type infrastructure plan, for instance, there may be opportunities to lighten the load of trains through weight-optimization design techniques. Unfortunately, at the moment, the most advanced application for AM in the rail industry is for the fabrication of spare parts, though this includes parts for HSR.
In these graphics, demand for metal doesn’t stem from electric vehicle projections alone, but from renewable energy and electric vehicle projections. Images courtesy of Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals.
As for electric vehicles, the authors of Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals project that, “The cumulative demand for cobalt from renewable energy and transport exceeds the current reserves in all scenarios, and for lithium, the cumulative demand is exceeded in all scenarios, except the ‘potential recycling scenario’.”
In other words, we might not have enough cobalt or lithium to meet the demand currently expected, meaning that, unless we can develop alternative battery solutions within 10 years, the promise of electric vehicles is tenuous. For those vehicles that are necessary to maintain some semblance of industrialized society, lightweighting will help extend their range.
Transportation accounts for about 19.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IPCC. Energy production accounts for about 30 percent, general industrial processes and construction account for 19 percent.
Because a large part of construction emissions come from the fabrication of concrete, it’s possible that additive construction could reduce the sector’s CO2 footprint by using less material and unique recycled materials. Other sources of GHG emissions from this sector include combustion of fossil fuels for heat and power as well as the use of fossil fuels for non-energy use and metallurgical production. As we covered in our series on the use of AM in the general industry and tooling sector, minor efficiencies could potentially be gained in industrial manufacturing processes.
By far the biggest impact we could have to cut emissions is to replace fossil fuel energy generation with renewables. AM can be used to improve the production of wind turbines, whether that is for prototyping, molds, or production. It has been used, for instance, to create small-scale systems for low amounts of power generation.
In some cases, AM has been used to improve the efficiency of solar systems, as well. Sandia National Laboratories was able to 3D print fractal-like, concentrating solar power receivers for small to medium-scale use that were up to 20 percent more effective at absorbing sunlight than traditional designs. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories formerly studied the ability to 3D print microfluidic devices used for sun tracking in solar power technologies.
The above graphic related to metal supply and demand, the researchers indicate that we do not have enough lithium or cobalt to reach the goals set out by the Paris Climate Agreement. This is not only the case for building electric vehicles, but for renewable energy as a whole. These authors and the authors of the IPCC reports, however, maintain a steady increase in economic growth and, therefore, do not consider potentially more dramatic and realistic cuts to emissions that don’t rely wholly on technological developments.
In these areas, AM may only play a small role due to the fact that our existing, centralized manufacturing system relies on mass production technologies to ship items globally from disparate locations. As we are now seeing with supply chain disruption caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, however, centralized production may not be the long-term method for manufacturing. If we move to a distributed manufacturing model, AM may be the production technology of choice and, therefore, could play a larger role. There may be ecological benefits to such a model as well. We will explore distributed production in our next section in this series.
The post Climate Disrupted: Optimizing Designs for Better Efficiency appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.
3D printing can be performed in countless ways; in fact, the choices are as infinite as the ability to innovate using this technology with an expanding force of hardware, software, and materials. Many different types of objects can be made that were not previously possible also, along with allowing for self-sustainability in creating items in the lab that can further a variety of studies. This was the case during a recent examination of thermal-physical properties by Italian researchers, explained in their recently published paper, ‘Coffee-based colloids for direct solar absorption.’
The researchers used 3D printing to create ‘collectors’ for their experiments for solar absorption, seeking an alternative to the usual carbon-based nanocolloids. To avoid the disadvantages of carbon—including cytotoxicity and harm to the environment—the authors leaned toward a much more natural mixture of:
The study revolved around the creation of a better surface absorber overall, functioning via sunlight and its energy being passed to a carrier fluid. That carrier must possess suitable thermal and optical properties, however. Because coffee is so dark, it is more conducive to soaking up sunlight, and resulting heat—harkening back to previous studies with black India ink. That research was encouraging, and in considering it, the authors have combined their experiments to try and include nanocolloids—but without the toxicity.
“Different nanoparticle types have been investigated, such as single- and multi-walled nanotubes, graphite, nano-horns, or carbon powder in water. However, the increasing use of carbon nanoparticles may lead to major environmental concerns and biological risks, because of their (cyto)toxicity. In this sense, biocompatible (nano)colloids may represent a more sustainable and safe-by-design alternative to carbon-based nanosuspensions,” stated the researchers.
Synthesis of the coffee-based colloids. (a) Coffee pot moka used for the coffee preparation (top-left); size distributions of the suspended coffee particles (top-right); Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images of the coffee particles (bottom). (b) Colloids with different G30 concentration (from right to left): pure G30 fluid (56.17 g/l of suspended particles); G30w10 fluid (10% dilution); G30w1 fluid (1% dilution in water); pure water.
Coffee is much more complex than you may imagine (which may be the secret to the magic it bestows upon so many of us each morning), and available in a wide range of different compositions. For this experiment, the researchers used a stovetop aluminum coffee maker, with 100 cm3 maximum capacity, a 35 cm3 capacity filter, and a topper pot. Proposed colloids were then explored regarding extinction coefficient and stored energy fraction, while photo-thermal performance was compared with a selective surface absorber using the customized, 3D printed solar collectors. Three different flow rates were examined during the experiment.
Optical properties of the coffee-based colloids (1%, 10% and 100% dilutions in water). (a) Comparison of the spectral extinction coefficient of the coffee-based colloids at different dilutions and a 0.05 g/l suspension of carbon nanohorns in water27. The G30 preparation (100% dilution) is coffee with 2 ppm of copper sulphate and 30% wt. glycerol; G30w1, G30w10 are respectively 1% and 10% volume fractions of G30 in distilled water. (b) Stored energy fraction (EF) as a function of the path length for the three considered coffee-based colloids. Solid lines correspond to the energy fraction obtained with Planck’s black body distribution, while dashed lines that obtained with the AM1.5 standard spectrum. The curves for a 0.05 g/l suspension of carbon nanohorns in water27 are also reported for comparison.
“Experimental tests are carried out in the same conditions for direct and indirect absorption, and the efficiency of the collectors compared,” stated the researchers in their paper.
Regarding the performance of the 3D printed collectors, the researchers explained that a balance between absorption and reflection at the bottom of the channel was critical. Thermal conductivity was promoted via ‘tuning’ of the geometry channel.
“Field tests, in good agreement with numerical models, have demonstrated that these fluids can provide similar performance to the traditional indirect absorption based on selective surfaces,” concluded the researchers.
“These results may pave the way to a new, unconventional family of biocompatible, environmentally sustainable and inexpensive colloids for solar applications, for example suited for vapor formation, seawater desalination, domestic hot water production, or sustainable solar cooling.
As further advances are made in technology today, the options for materials in 3D printing continue to grow; however, this is not without concern for what types of energy we are using, along with how we are impacting the environment. Studies regarding materials and emissions, toxicity, and various methods for recycling continue to emerge also, along with different ways to harness solar energy in the actual exercise of 3D printing. Find out more about colloids and solar absorption here. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.
Set-up for the solar absorption tests. (a) Flow chart of the solar collectors design and manufacturing: from CAD model, to 3D-printed collector, to final assembly. During field tests, the performance of the direct solar absorber is compared with that of the traditional flat-plate collector. (b) Scheme of the experimental set-up used for testing the efficiency of the coffee-based colloids for the direct solar thermal energy absorption. Solid lines represent hydraulic pipes for the colloidal flow; dashed lines electric wires for data acquisition.
[Source / Images: Coffee-based colloids for direct solar absorption]
Wise mom once said “You go to school to learn not for a fashion show.” So why not learn a bit about solar panels and the power they generate (thankfully the sun never goes out of fashion!) to build your own backpack-able battery pack. Wherever the sun shines – whether in your school bus window during the morning commute or throughout the day as you hop-skip around campus – at the end of the day your mobile device will thank you for being fully charged!
Check out the full project here on the Adafruit Learning System.
August is Back to School Month here at Adafruit! Each week we’ll be bringing you a two #BackToSchool posts on the blog! Stay tuned for product and gift guides, tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System, and inspiration from around the web! Get started by checking out Adafruit’s educational resources, such as our kits and project packs, suggested products for young engineers, blog posts for educators and an extensive selection of books to help you learn!
