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Added on the 24/04/2024 08:04:02 - Copyright : Auto Moto EN
Some very creative and enterprising students from the Eindhoven University of Technology unveiled the world's first biocomposite car, dubbed 'Lina', at their university’s campus in Eindhoven on Wednesday. The vehicle, which is fully functional, weighs just over 660 pounds, runs on electric energy generated by a battery pack. The next step for Lina and the design team is to try and obtain a licence number for the car, which will enable her to be driven on public roads. In order to do this, they have to test the vehicle on the streets with the backing of the Dutch Vehicle Authority.
One laboratory near the Dutch city of Eindhoven is doing the dirty work - literally. Bio-artist Jalila Essaidi has pioneered a new method to transform cow dung into useful material. Jalila shot to fame in 2013 after she spearheaded a genetic experiment which combined human skin with spider silk, which the media called 'bulletproof skin.' Her new project focuses on sustainability. Cow manure is actually one of the leading drivers of the greenhouse gas methane escaping into the atmosphere, so Jalila's project has the potential to ease global warming. Jalilia's company called the material made from cow dung 'Mestic,' and its got many interesting properties. Textiles made from Mestic have been well received by the fashion industry and some big-name brands already looking into ways of producing fashion items made of eco-friendly cow poop. Would you ever wear clothing made out of cow manure?
Electric cars and fuel efficient vehicles are all the rage as people become more environmentally conscious and try to reduce their carbon footprints. A group of students from the Delft Technical University in the Netherlands unveiled the EcoRunner 7, an electric vehicle with a fuel efficiency equivalent of 8,200 miles per gallon. The students plan to prove the fuel efficiency of the EcoRunner 7 by driving from the Dutch capital Amsterdam to Cairo, the capital of Egypt! The newest version of the EcoRunner comes with some significant upgrades. By making the body completely out of carbon fiber, the team have brought the weight of the EcoRunner 7 down to less than 22 pounds. The ultra efficient vehicle runs on a small electric motor located underneath the driver in the back. Team Delft is due to participate in the world championship of fuel economy, the Shell Eco-marathon in London, this coming May.
This array of 149 Xenon short-arc lamps is called Synlight, and it's designed to be an artificial sun. Invented by the German Aerospace Centre, or DLR, Synlight can produce up to 10,000 times the intensity of natural sunlight experienced on Earth. Researchers and scientists turned on their machine for Ruptly in Juelich on Monday. The Synlight array measures 45 by 52 feet but all the powerful bulbs are designed to concentrate their light radiation on a small space which measures just 8 inches by 8 inches. Its inventors claim that the synthetic sun can generated temperatures up to 3000 degrees Celsius and beyond. Synlight was created with a specific purpose in mind. Hydrogen fuel, considered by many to be the fuel of the future because it emits no carbon when burned, is derived by breaking water down into its base atoms. However, this process requires a huge amount of heat energy. Synlight is meant to power the reaction to obtain hyrdogen fuel in a way that uses as little fossil fuels as possible. The high power array also has potential uses in other fields as well, including scientific research and commercial applications which require an intense source of heat. The project cost about 3.5 million euro to buid, funding which was provided by the German government and automaker BMW.
This portable hydrogen fuel cell prototype could be the next generation of portable chargers for phones, laptops and other electronic devices. Called HandyPower, the new fuel were tested at the Institute of High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences. HandyPower is resident at Skolkovo Innovation Centre and is financed by the Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE).
German initiative 'Just Swap It' introduces a deposit system and coffee cups made out of bamboo. Angela Moore reports.
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