Dartmouth Engineering Professors Discuss Promising Technologies for the Environment
Apr 15, 2013
Technological developments are enabling us to live a more sustainable life. We asked professors at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth:
What technologies under development hold the most promise for sustainability—and why?
Cross-Laminated Timber Systems
Cross-laminated timber systems, which are more widely used in Europe than in the U.S., are being used for larger-scale structures (20+ story tall buildings). Using timber rather than steel and concrete is more sustainable as the wood is renewable, recyclable, recoverable, and stores carbon.
It will require massive social commitment to make a scaled-up system of supply and distribution, but it is capable of removing energy as a constraint on development and the accompanying distortions.
Hybrid-Electric and High MPG Vehicles; Solar Hot Water Heating
These open up the possibility to dramatically reduce energy use and carbon production without a significant paradigm shift or painful modification of behavior/habits of the general public. Improved building management, especially with regard to water heating and thermodynamic processes such as heating and cooling. Rethinking building management and intelligently designing heating and cooling processes—for example, solar hot water heating—could have a tremendous impact.
– Jason Stauth, Assistant Professor of Engineering
Hydraulics
Hydraulics—pumps and high-pressure fluid—to transfer power from offshore wind turbines or hydrokinetic tidal turbines to on-shore electric power generating stations. This may prove to be a more economical way to harness wind and tidal energy.
– Brenden Epps, Assistant Professor of Engineering
Integrated Food Production Systems
Beef production accounts for over half of all land devoted to agriculture in the United States and yet delivers a much smaller fraction of both calories and protein. The land devoted to beef production could be devoted to producing food in a more land-efficient way, thus lessening pressure to clear land, which is a major source of habitat loss and greenhouse gas emissions. Producing and consuming food in a more land-efficient way could also make room for biofuels, which likely have to be substituted for fossil fuels in a carbon-constrained world for a significant (about half) of mobility requirements.
– Lee Lynd, Paul E. and Joan H. Queneau Distinguished Professor in Environmental Engineering Design, Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences
Net Zero Homes
They're available now and will become more affordable with faster paybacks every year.
Photovoltaic Solar Energy; Smart Buildings and Cities
Photovoltaic solar technology has made significant progress and prices are coming down. Smart buildings and cities—that use censors and remote control to balance energy loads, decongest traffic, and the like—because of their reduction in energy consumption and emissions.
A smart grid that is focused on enhancing the integration of renewables into our energy mix.
– Mark Borsuk, Assistant Professor of Engineering
Pulse-Electro-Thermal Deicing
Pulse-Electro-Thermal Deicing (PETD) technology, which uses quick pulses of electricity to instantly loosen ice from surfaces such as wind turbine rotors and solar panels. (In the United States and Canada about 17 percent of power generated by windmills is lost due to icing of windmill rotors. Snow and frost on solar panels lessen the power the panels can generate.) The technology can remove ice from windshields in two seconds using very low energy from a car battery. If used to loosen ice in commercial, industrial, and residential icemakers, PETD would save up to 40 percent of electric energy used by those devices. Currently the icemakers consume about $5 billion per year of electricity. If used in no-frost refrigeration and AC-evaporators, the technology could save from 15 to 40 percent of electric energy. With the national refrigeration electric bill averaging about $40 billion per year, this would make an impact.
