Green Inventions for the future!

1. Bio-Mimicry
Carly Breault

2. Five Green Inventions
Of the Future

3. Termite den = Office building
 Termites design their homes which
control the temperature of their
living space even in the hottest of
climates
 Dens are able to maintain
comfortable temperatures (87
degrees) that require less
additional heating/cooling
mechanisms
 The mimicking building has large
chimneys that naturally draw in
cool air at night to lower the
temperature of the floor slabs, just
like termite dens.
 During the day, these slabs retain
the coolness, greatly reducing the
need for supplemental air
conditioning.
 Uses 90 percent less energy to
heat and cool than traditional
buildings.

4. Whale = Turbine
 Whales are able to dive hundreds
of feet below the surface and stay
there for hours. Whales power
their movement with über-efficient
fins and a tail.
 The bumps at the front edge of a
whale fin greatly increase its
efficiency, reducing drag by 32
percent and increasing lift by 8
percent.
 Companies like Whale Power are
borrowing this concept and
creating wind turbine blades that
greatly boost the amount of energy
created per turbine.
 Other companies are applying the
idea to cooling fans, airplane wings
and propellers.

5. Birds = Jets
 Birds boost flying distance by
+70% by flying in a V-shape.
 one bird flaps its wings
creating a small updraft that
lifts the bird behind.
 As each bird passes, they add
their own energy to the stroke
helping all the birds maintain
flight.
 By rotating their order through
the stack, they spread out the
exertion.
 By traveling in a V-shape with
planes taking turns in front as
birds do, aircraft could use 15
percent less fuel compared to
flying solo.

6. Boxfish= Mercedes-Benz
 Mercedes-Benz looked towards
the boxfish for their bionic car
concept.
 Noting the aerodynamics and
efficiency of the boxfish's
shape, the engineers decided
to apply the characteristics of
the fish to a car.
 The result is a very streamlined
vehicle with a 65% lower drag
coefficient than other compact
cars out at the time.
 It also has 80% lower nitrogen
oxide emissions

7. Mussels=Hardwood
Plywood
 Columbia Forest
Products looked at the
natural adhesive
abilities of the blue
mussel and came up
with a way to use soy-
based formaldehyde (a
colorless poisonous
gas) -free technology
in the construction of
hardwood plywood
products.

8. Greatest Potential:
Termite Den Buildings
 It takes a lot of energy to heat rooms in winter and cool them in
summer.
 Forty-three percent of the energy used in the average home is for
heating and cooling rooms.
 Air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions are by-products of
energy production and consumption and can have an detrimental
impact on the environment.
 The Eastgate Centre's design is a deliberate move away from the
"big glass block". Glass office blocks are typically expensive to
maintain at a comfortable temperature, needing substantial heating
in the winter and cooling in the summer. They tend to recycle air, in
an attempt to keep the expensively conditioned atmosphere inside,
leading to high levels of air pollution in the building. Artificial air-
conditioning systems are high-maintenance, and Zimbabwe has the
additional problem that the original system and most spare parts
have to be imported, squandering foreign exchange reserves.

9. Eastgate Building,
Zimbabwe
 Designed to be ventilated and cooled by
entirely natural means
 Passive cooling works by storing heat in the
day and venting it at night as temperatures
drop.
– Start of day: the building is cool.
– During day: machines and people generate heat,
and the sun shines. Heat is absorbed by the
fabric of the building, which has a high heat
capacity, so that the temperature inside
increases but not greatly.
– Evening: temperatures outside drop. The warm
internal air is vented through chimneys, assisted
by fans but also rising naturally because it is less
dense, and drawing in denser cool air at the
bottom of the building.
– Night: this process continues, cold air flowing
through cavities in the floor slabs until the
building's fabric has reached the ideal
temperature to start the next day.
 Passively cooled, Eastgate
uses only 10% of the
energy needed by a similar
conventionally cooled
building.

10. Least Potential: Bird Jets
 High risk of plane crash
 Requires highly trained/skilled pilots
 May intimate and upset plane
passengers
 HOWEVER…We do need to think of
viable solutions to reducing the carbon
footprint of airplanes…

11. What Could Be Done to
Improve it?
 Lockheed Stratoliner Hydrogen Jet
– inspired by the form of a Bar Tailed Godwit, a bird that boasts the record for
longest non-stop flight at an amazing 7,258 miles!
– With over-sized wings generating extra lift and four Cryogenic Hydrogen Turbofan
engines powering the jet, the Lockheed could fly anywhere without stopping.
– The Cryogenic Hydrogen Turbofan engines also power the jet without causing
harmful emissions and can operate on low power, much like that of fighter jets.
These features all add up to a cleaner and more environmentally friendly flight.

12. My Own Green
Invention
Plant-Inspired Solar Cells

13. Target Environmental
Issue
 Capturing Energy through Renewable
Resources

14. How it Works: Biofuel
Solar Cell
 Photosynthesis
– Plants capture photons from sun, use the energy
to create flow of electrons
– Plants use the electrical energy to make
chemical energy. Products are created: glucose
and oxygen
– Mimic this process of capturing photons and use
this energy to create electron flow.
 Purpose of technology= flow of electrons (electricity)

15. Benefits
 Increases solar energy conversion efficiency
 Cheaper than standard solar panels
 In manufacturing of silicon-based solar cells
there are environmental concerns
– Toxic by-products such as silicon tetrachloride
dumped into environment
– Processing silica (SiO2) to produce silicon is an
energy-intensive process, energy that typically
comes from polluting fossil fuels

16. Difficulties
 Incorporating the plant into the solar
cells (actual design)
 Efficiency: Both plant and photovoltaic
systems harvest energy from the sun,
but use the energy in different ways.

17. Different Solution
 Consume Less
– Spend more time outdoors
– “Live simply so others may simply live”

18. Bibliography
 http://biomimicry.net/
 http://brainz.org/15-coolest-cases-biomimicry/
 http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-r
 http://www.asknature.org/