last week i was tasked with making a waste-to-energy plant and as with most thing i build, i like to let the idea roll around in my head for a few days. i already had a head start with a great illustration of the major parts that i need to include (thanks to ecomaine). i also spend a little time, like an hour, searching online to learn more about whatever it is i’m building and to get ideas of what the significant details should look like. since i had an up-to-date illustration that is intended for education, all i have to do is have each labelled component as part of the build and i’d be done
since this work is for middle school science, i also try to make each “component” easy to describe from a visual standpoint. for example, the waste-to-energy plant has something called a mercury and dioxin removal system but referring to some component in the virtual world with that term is pretty useless. instead, i’ll do something like make it a distinct colour and/or shape combo, like a yellow cylinder poking out of a cube. that way subQuark can refer to it in his book something like this: ”between the furnace and the vent flue is a blue box with yellow cylindrical protrusions, that’s the mercury and dioxin removal system . . .”
another day or so and it will be done – this is a great concept in the real world because an effective waste-to-energy plant can reduce the amount of waste going into a landfill down to 5%!
hmm, figuring out how to retrofit this into the space
keeping it "low capacity" (small) still illustrates the concept and fits the existing space
Have you ever thought of building a “Green Living” simulation ?
With sustainable housing systems:
* grey water waste systems
* Solar & Wind power generation
* Composting systems
* Sustainable garden system
Other things like:
* Rooftop & Balcony gardening for urban dwellers
* Local produce to Table plans
* Water & Energy Conservation / recovery.
Did you know that Ford in Deerborne went green and is saving heaps of money by doing so ? http://www.greenroofs.com/projects/pview.php?id=12
Did you know that some grocery stores are now setting up Roof Top produce (veggies) production to provide fresh / local veggies at a lower price, while also recovering rain waters and reducing their energy costs ? One of many articles: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/06/08/turning-rooftop-garden-supermarkets-supply-chain You should see what they did in New Orleans .. ;)
I personally feel we need to take action to affect change and that also means teaching the younger generations and our children to think in less “disposable & harmful ways”. We are only temporary custodians of the planet for our children, as they will be the custodians for their children. Maybe this idea would / could make a good Simulator Series.
WhiteStar
20 May 12 at 3:59 pm
hey WhiteStar! I just do as i’m told but our neighborhood will have some of your suggestions like grey water and geothermal and composting at the home level
Our “toilet” waste water activity has a green rooftop deck and I have a building that wil be getting a green roof (this is my face, an inline water turbine in the waste water plumbing)
There are so many great and relatively easy ideas we can all put into action – it’s mainly a mindset of doing it (some things don’t even involve additional expense)
The simulation sounds great and we do have terrestrial wind turbines (painted purple to reduce bat death as discovered in a European study), floating ocean windmills, and in-water turbines
We also have solar arrays and are thinking of doing that molten salt solar array like in Spain
Keep the ideas coming – we have corn plastic bottles too but could use many other ideas too
Oh, did you read about the wind turbines that will be placed in the Sahara? They condense moisture from the air with refrigeration (adiabatic changes) and pump the water to tanks and irrigation. Right now they can produce about 600 litres per day and think they can do 1000!
Ener Hax
20 May 12 at 4:45 pm
Speaking of turbines and moisture in the air, there is an almost opposite idea, “Wave energy pioneer Stephen Salter has shown that pumping seawater sprays into the atmosphere could cool the planet”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17400804
(He wants to do it on the Faroe Islands)
That is Stephen Salter who worked wit the nodding duck idea for wave power generation, which is beong ressurected.
Keith Selmes
21 May 12 at 6:54 am
Almost forgot, there is a chap on Kitely has a Detroit sim, it includes a small building with a roof garden. First time I saw that idea. Rather neat.
Keith Selmes
21 May 12 at 7:00 am
The build looks really good as per usual.
However there is a good deal of opposition to incinerating waste.
Maybe it needs some protest NPC on the gate with placards??? Just kidding, only just though. Might be fun.
Near here we have a new plant intended for a disused quarry.
The quarry is overgrown, having gone very much back to nature, and now a haven for plants and wildlife, and an amenity for local residents. So lots of people oppose this plan. People nearby also don’t like the idea of increased traffic, especially garbage trucks, going past their homes, and they have worries about fumes from the plant. And at the same time, environmentalists oppose incineration on principle because they want everything recycled.
In town, another plant is planned for a derelict industrial site.
That site isn’t back to nature exactly, more of an eyesore and wasted space, but it meets opposition for most of the same reasons.
In both cases, energy production can mitigate some opposition, and especially if there is a CHP option which reduces living costs for local residents, but I think it’s worth being aware of the politics – and the politicians who will get involved, each saying how obviously stupid it is to put this thing in their area, and each calling the other a nimby.
Budding engineers need to be aware of this, they may well find themselves offering a neat and environmentally sound solution to a local council who have no engineering knowledge and heads full of other, less practical, ideas. I’m not sure what stage in education that comes in, but I think teachers would have mentioned this kind of thing in scienc classes at my school.
It just struck me, this kind of sim could be a method of getting the ideas across to the people other than students ? Worried about fumes ? there’s this blue and yellow box you can see here which ….
This could work ?
Keith Selmes
21 May 12 at 7:33 am
hi
the kitely build that keith mentions is by my colleague at http://www.3dcolab.com – paul emery
http://www.kitely.com/virtualworld/Paul-Emery/VirtualDetroit
and it is for a demo at http://alliedmedia.org/ this summer in Detroit as well as the roof garden there are several other examples of “sustainable urbanism”
Stiofain
stiofain mactomais
21 May 12 at 11:48 am
Wave energy pioneer Stephen Salter has shown that pumping seawater sprays into the atmosphere could cool the planet
go to the beach and splash around more sez Ener Hax =D
that’s a really cool link keith! a cloud making ship!
good point on incinerators and the key is to enforce good “scrubbing” on all gases but our goal isn’t to get into the politics of science, just to present the current concepts but i think subQuark might be linking to current event news via information kiosks in-world and allow students to debate this on their own
the NPC protestors would actually be pretty cool (i have yet to try NPC and have downloaded your code a while back)
and you are correct – this could be used for adults also and it’s an idea subQuark and i discuss regularly – general science literacy
thanks stiofain for Paul’s link – some very cool work!
Ener Hax
21 May 12 at 12:45 pm
In India, engineers have devised a cheap and 100% efficient method of recycling plastics & rubbers into fuel oil. The system uses it’s own output to fuel itself and generates fuel used to run the Garbage & city trucks. The emissions from the process are completely scrubbed and no toxins hit the air. I’d have to Google it and find it (was a while ago)but I’m just plain too exhausted now to do so.
WhiteStar
21 May 12 at 9:29 pm
ooh, i’m going to look that up WhiteStar! i’ve heard or rubbish powered buses but never on that scale! thanks!
Ener Hax
22 May 12 at 6:50 am