Now, chromium-free coatings to protect cars against rust

A new chromium-free coating can help protect cars against rust, reveals new study.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institutes for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg and for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU in Chemnitz, developed an alternative anti-corrosion method based on nanocomposites as against the long-standing chromium plating prohibited since 2007.
The boffins along with colleagues at the Institute for Corrosion Protection Dresden GmbH had submerged steel sheets into a coating sol, applied a power coating and exposed them to various tests to produce the new nanomaterials.
While the steel sheets were kept in a chamber filled with atomized brine for 360 hours, or 15 days, at a temperature of 35 degrees, the metal sheets had also been placed in an environment chamber with a relative humidity of 100 percent for 240 hours, or 10 days.
ISC project manager Dr. Johanna Kron said: “These coatings protect most galvanized materials almost as well as commercial yellow chrome plating. Indeed, the new coatings are often even more effective than the chromium-free system and chromium(III) passivation currently on the market.”
The study also found that the chromium-free coated metal sheets, which were less than a thousandth of a millimeter thick, could be formed in exactly the same way as yellow chrome plated sheets.
Kron revealed that the corrosion-proofing system could be expected to hit the market in around five years. (ANI)
Source: http://www.freshnews.in/now-chromium-free-coatings-to-protect-cars-against-rust-103493

A new water treatment method

Treating industrial wastewater with scrap iron can be a cheap and effective way to reduce pollution from factories

SCRAP conjures up visions of rusting junkyards on the wrong side of the tracks. But this image could soon be given a green makeover. Researchers have found that iron filings from factories can be a cheap and efficient way to clean up polluted water. Because such scrap is widely available, the idea could be particularly useful in developing countries.

The new approach is being used to treat wastewater in the Taopu Industrial District of Shanghai, which is home to many small pharmaceutical, petrochemical and textile factories that discharge water contaminated with dyes, phosphorus and nitrogen. The project, which began in August 2006, now treats about 60,000 cubic metres (about 13m gallons) a day of industrially contaminated water—which is about the volume of municipal wastewater that a small town generates. READ MORE...

Source: The Economist

Reducing Pollution: Green Future For Scrap Iron

Zhang, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, recently concluded a five-year research project in which he and his colleagues at Tongji University in Shanghai used two million pounds of iron to detoxify pollutants in industrial wastewater.

The project, carried out in Shanghai, was the largest in history to use iron in an environmental application. The iron, called zero valent iron (ZVI) because it is not oxidized, was obtained in the form of shavings or turnings from local metal-processing shops for less than 15 cents a pound.
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Source: ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2008)

Half of Global Electricity To Come From Renewables IEA Says

by David Appleyard, Editor, Renewable Energy World Magazine
Paris, France [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

Nearly 50% of global electricity supplies must come from renewable energy sources in order to cut CO2 emissions in half by 2050, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its latest study, “Deploying Renewables: Principles for Effective Policies.”

Meeting these very ambitious objectives to “minimize significant and irreversible climate change” will require unprecedented political commitment and effective policy design and implementation, the IEA said. The IEA is also urging governments to adopt effective policies based on five key design principles to accelerate the exploitation of the “large potential for renewable energy.”Nonetheless, the IEA also recognizes the scale of such an undertaking, saying in a statement, “this is a huge challenge and part of the entire energy revolution we need to achieve.”

Commenting at the launch of the study, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the IEA, said, “Only a limited set of countries have implemented effective support policies for renewables and there is a large potential for improvement. Several countries have made important progress in recent years in fostering renewables, with renewable energy markets expanding considerably as a result. However, much more can and should be done at the global level - in OECD member countries, large emerging economies and other countries - to address the urgent need of transforming our unsustainable energy present into a clean and secure energy future.”

READ MORE...
Courtesy: Dr S Vasudevan

Water-propelled cars may run on Indian roads, in about two decades

Manas Dasgupta

VADODARA: It may not be long before the cars will be running on the Indian roads literally on water! Sounds amazing, but the senior researcher of the central government’s Energy Resources Development Agency (ERDA), Vadodara, G. S. Grewal, believes that it could become a reality in a maximum of two decades or even earlier.

The ERDA has already developed techniques for using hydrogen gas, available in abundance from water, as fuel to run cars and other uses to meet the world’s energy crisis likely to arise from the diminishing fossil fuels. Based on the indigenous technology, the system developed by the ERDA for the generation of hydrogen gas would cost just about Rs. three per kilo watt per hour as against Rs. 9.3 required for the creation of same amount of energy from diesel.

Dr. Grewal was speaking at a seminar on “Impact and Benefits of the Petroleum Products and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act, 2006, on the Society,” organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Power and Energy Society of India with the support of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Gas Authority of India Limited and the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.

Dr. Grewal said the technology to use hydrogen as fuel for static installations had been fully developed and the ERDA was ready for commercial production, but the technology for using it in moving vehicles could still take some time in developing suitable containers to store gas. Pointing out that storing hydrogen in gaseous or liquid forms would be unviable, he said the ERDA had developed a magnesium-based alloy to use as hydrogen container in solid state, but was yet find an answer to the problem of explosion in the event of even a minor collision.

Source: The Hindu
Courtesy: Dr S Vasudevan

A High-Capacity CO2 Trap

A porous material created by a team led by Gérard Férey at Institut Lavoisier in Versailles1 has an unparalleled ability to capture carbon dioxide, a major challenge in the ongoing fight against global warming.

This recent study2 co-authored by several laboratories associated with CNRS3 has shown that MIL101, a mesoporous4 Metal-Organic Framework (MOF), could store close to 400 m3 of CO2 at 25°C per m3 of solid, almost double the capacity of the best materials commercially available today.

Yet when Férey initially set out to create porous frameworks, he had no specific application in mind. His goal was to move beyond trial and error and devise a logical approach to create tailored porous solids. Using a personal computer simulation program, he found extraordinary virtual results. They eventually led to the creation of MIL101, the largest crystalline porous solid to date, with pores of 3.4 nm and a huge cubic cell volume.

The next issue was to figure out what to trap in such large cages and, given the increased focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, CO2 was a prime candidate. Férey also gives credit to his colleagues who demonstrated MIL101’s record CO2 adsorption properties. “We now know why and where the CO2 molecules attach,” he points out. “This is essential information if we want to find even better products.”

The study also shows that the method chosen to activate MIL101 is crucial in optimizing its CO2 adsorption capability, the most effective method being a combination of hot ethanol and ammonium fluoride treatments. CO2 storage is only one of many potential applications for a large-pore MOF and the possibilities are practically endless. “You can fill it with pretty much anything,” concludes Férey, “hydrogen, drugs, or even use the cages as a nanoreactor to produce materials directly inside them.”

Fabien Buliard

Notes :
1. CNRS / Université de Versailles.2. P. L. Llewellyn et al., “High Uptakes of CO2 and CH4 in Mesoporous Metal-Organic Frameworks MIL-100 and MIL-101,” Langmuir, 2008. DOI 10.1021/1a800227x.3. Institut Lavoisier (CNRS / Université de Versailles), Institut Charles Gerhardt (CNRS / Université de Montpellier-II / ENSCM), Laboratoire chimie Provence (CNRS / Universités Aix-Marseille-I, II and III), Laboratoire catalyse et spectrochimie (CNRS / Ensi Caen / Université de Caen).4. A material with pore diameters of 2 to 50 nm in size.

Contacts : Gérard Férey, Institut Lavoisier, Versailles.gferey@wanadoo.fr
Source: http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1238.htm

Courtesy: Dr S Vasudevan