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refrigeration

A New Method of Refrigeration | Earth Wise

February 10, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new method of refrigeration

Salting roads before winter storms is a familiar sight in the Northeast.  The purpose is to change the temperature at which ice can form on the road.  The underlying concept has formed the basis of a new method of refrigeration that has been dubbed “ionocaloric cooling.”

It is described in a paper published in the journal Science by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  The method takes advantage of how energy in the form of heat is either stored or released when a material changes phase – such as water changing from ice to liquid and vice versa.  Melting absorbs heat from the surroundings while freezing releases heat.  An ionocaloric refrigerator makes use of this phase and temperature change using an electrical current to add or remove ions provided from a chemical salt.

The potential is to make use of this refrigeration cycle instead of the vapor compression systems in present-day refrigerators, which make use of refrigerant gases that are greenhouse gases, many of which very powerful ones.  The goal is to come up with a system that makes things cold, works efficiently, is safe, and doesn’t harm the environment. 

There are a number of alternative refrigeration systems under development that make use of a variety of mechanisms including magnetism, pressure, physical stretching, and electric fields.  Ionocaloric cooling uses ions to drive solid-to-liquid phase changes.

Apart from some very promising theoretical calculations of the system’s potential, the researchers have also demonstrated the technique experimentally.  They have received a provisional patent for the technology and are continuing to work on prototypes to demonstrate its capabilities and amenability to scaling up.

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Berkeley Lab Scientists Develop a Cool New Method of Refrigeration

Photo, posted October 29, 2021, courtesy of Branden Frederick via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Solar-Powered Target Store | Earth Wise

April 26, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Target among many retailers adopting renewables

Many companies have made sustainability commitments of various types. Environmental organizations have urged big-box and grocery stores to install solar panels on their rooftops and parking lots thereby reducing their energy usage and expanding the country’s supply of renewable energy.  These places occupy large areas and therefore are capable of supporting large solar arrays.

According to a report by two environmental advocacy groups, rooftop solar panels on retail stores could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of nearly 8 million U.S. homes.

Target Stores are one of the retailers that has been making an effort to be a greener company.  Target has installed solar panels on about 25% of its approximately 1,900 stores.  The Target store in Vista, California, about 40 miles north of San Diego, is the company’s most sustainable store.  It already had solar panels on its rooftop, powering a portion of the store.

But now it has installed massive carports topped with solar panels high above its parking lot.  With these panels, this Target can now produce enough renewable energy to power the entire store, from its refrigeration to its heating and air conditioning. Adding in some of the other energy-saving features of the store, Target expects to produce 10% more energy than the store needs, which it will return to the local power grid.  This is Target’s first net-zero energy store.

Target is not the only big retailer going solar.   Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Walmart all have been installing solar panels on some of their rooftops.  Even some restaurants are trying to reach sustainability goals with solar panels.  This is a trend that hopefully will continue to grow.

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Target looks to massive solar panels in a California parking lot as a green model to power its stores

Photo, posted June 30, 2014, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Llamas And The Flu

December 21, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EW-12-21-18-Llamas-and-the-Flu.mp3

Last year’s flu season was the worst in 40 years.  More than 80,000 people died in the U.S. last year from the flu and its complications.  Flu vaccines are the best preventative we have, but there are still high mortality rates around the world.  Some individuals respond poorly to vaccination, and variations in viruses makes targeting with the optimal antigen very difficult.  The World Health Organization estimates that between 290,000 and 650,000 people die from seasonal flu worldwide each year.

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Better Sell-By Dates For Milk

October 2, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EW-10-02-18-Better-Sell-By-Dates.mp3

The sell-by and best-by dates on milk cartons are ones we tend to pay close attention to.  Many of us automatically discard milk if it is past one of those dates.  However, those dates are not really scientifically established but rather are guesses based on experience.

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Upgrading The Doomsday Seed Vault

April 11, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-04-11-18-Upgrading-the-Doomsday-Vault.mp3

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located nearly 400 feet beneath the earth’s surface and fully funded by the Norwegian government, offers any government access to seeds in case of natural or man-made disaster.  It’s more often referred to as the Doomsday Seed Vault.  And ironically, it too is threatened by climate change.

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Raw Wastewater On Farms

August 21, 2017 By EarthWise

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/EW-08-21-17-Raw-Wastewater-on-Farms.mp3

Clean water supplies are dwindling around the world.  As a result, the use of untreated wastewater on farms for crop irrigation is on the rise. 

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