Standing between the Semis wrapped in Pepsi and FritoLay branding, Musk spoke about the need to reduce carbon emissions before pivoting to talking up the selling points of the trucks. “It looks sick,” Musk said, gesturing at one of the vehicles. “You want to drive that. I mean, that thing looks like it came from the future.”

The first delivery of Tesla Semis went to PepsiCo, which placed an order for 100 trucks back in December 2017. Other customers waiting for deliveries include companies like Walmart, UPS, FedEx, and Anheuser-Busch, most of which placed orders numbering in the dozens. PepsiCo plans to use at least 15 of the Semis to achieve zero-emissions status at its Modesto, California Frito-Lay facility.

Some Promises Kept, Others in Question

Musk originally unveiled the Tesla Semi electric Class 8 truck prototype in 2017, with plans to start production in 2019. Then came delay after delay. After a couple years of prototyping, finalizing the design, and road testing the truck, Tesla faced pandemic-related supply chain challenges and a shortage of battery cells.

In 2017, Musk said the Tesla Semi would run on Autopilot, the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system, but made no mention of it at the recent delivery event. It appears that prices will also rise sharply from Musk’s 2017 estimates of $150,000 for the 300-mile range version and $180,000 for the 500-mile version.

But many of the other specs have remained the same, including a tri-motor system that allows the truck to easily cruise by conventional gas-powered trucks pulling the same load. The Semis will still be charged with a “megawatt class charger” and consume less than 2 kWh per mile. The trucks also deliver three times the power of any diesel truck currently available and feature regenerative braking, meaning the brakes deliver power to the battery when drivers stop pressing the accelerator.

The Gigafactory reveal event came after Tesla completed a 500-mile test trip of one of its Semi trucks fully loaded with 81,000 pounds of cargo. The trip began at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California and ended in San Diego without needing to recharge the battery.

Will the Tesla Semi Ever Actually Take Off?

Tesla’s all-electric Semi trucks could dramatically change long-haul trucking. Current diesel-powered trucks in the same category represent one percent of U.S. vehicle sales, but 20 percent of overall vehicle emissions. If they are, in fact, equipped with Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system, they could reduce demand for drivers and help prevent accidents that occur when drivers are tired or distracted. The system uses sensors and cameras to provide data on the surroundings to the truck’s onboard computer, alerting the driver to potential collisions and applying the brakes automatically in emergencies.

Self-driving functionality is still probably quite a few years from becoming reality, with potential job losses yet to be determined. In the meantime, drivers will have to get used to a very different user experience than what they’re used to, especially inside the cab. Polish truck driver Tomasz Orynski went viral on Twitter after pointing out impractical design choices that make the Semi “a completely stupid vehicle,” including a central seating position that makes it hard to see oncoming traffic or access the window without getting up.

Among other things, the doors are positioned in the rear of the cab, so there’s no longer room for a mattress. The position of the touchscreens replacing physical buttons and levers also makes them hard to reach while keeping eyes on the road.

Musk Drama Could Make Tesla Less Desirable

Meanwhile, it’s hard not to wonder whether Musk’s misadventures at Twitter will affect Tesla. Recent media coverage suggests that all of Musk’s conspiracy theories, transphobic jokes, erratic behavior, and right-wing political comments could harm Tesla by association. Company stocks continue to nosedive, and investors are increasingly furious with Musk over his preoccupation with the social media platform, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“The market voted today that the $TSLA brand has been negatively impacted by the Twitter drama,” tweeted Gary Black, a hedge fund manager who owns about $50 million in Tesla stock. “Where before EV buyers were proud to drive their Teslas to their friends or show off Teslas in their driveways, now the Twitter controversy is hurting Tesla’s brand equity.”

The post Tesla Finally Delivers Semi Trucks to Customers Amid Musk Twitter Drama first appeared on Dornob.

“Humanity’s excessive production of material waste poses a critical environmental threat, and the problem is only escalating, especially in the past few decades with the rapid development of powerful electronic tools and persistent consumer desire to upgrade to the newest available technology,” the team, led by Professor Soekheun Choi, wrote in a paper published in the ASC Applied Materials and Interfaces journal.

“The poor disposability of electronics,” the researchers continue, “is especially an issue for the newly arising field of single-use devices and sensors, which are often used to evaluate human health and monitor environmental conditions, and for other novel applications. Though impressive in terms of function and convenience, usage of conventional electronic components in these applications would inflict an immense surge in waste and result in higher costs.”

Traditional circuit boards are manufactured from resin, glass fibers, and metal wiring, making them somewhat bulky and harder to recycle. That means that millions of single-use circuits in things like personal wearable devices, point-of-care medical devices, and environmental monitors simply get tossed in the trash every day.

In response to this issue, the team — assembled from the University’s Bioelectrics and Microsystems Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering — turned to an exercise in “papertronics.” They created a single-use, amplifier-type electronic circuit board made from renewable and biodegradable materials like paper and wax.

The started by printing out electronic channels using wax onto a single sheet of filter paper. The wax was heated to 266 degrees Fahrenheit for two minutes so it could soak completely through the paper. The next step was to fill in all the areas not covered in wax with both semi-conductive and conductive ink. The team then screen-printed conductive metal components onto the paper before bonding the layers together with Thru-hole technology. Lastly, they cast a gel-based electrolyte at 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes onto the sheet.

The tiny, flexible circuit board proved effective when it came to resistor, capacitor, and transistor functions. If left unused, it could biodegrade over time with minimal permanent waste left behind — but the team also demonstrated that the board could be completely disintegrated within seconds with just the smallest of flames. And because of the limited amount of materials required, producing these paper circuit boards would likely be very inexpensive, and easily scalable for mass production.

Professor Choi and his team are excited by the potential their creation has to curb e-waste on a global scale. As they explain: “All electronic components are paper-based and integrated on paper-based printed circuit boards (PCBs), innovatively providing a realistic and practical solution for green electronic platforms.”

The post Research Team Creates Paper Circuit Board to Curb E-Waste first appeared on Dornob.

Wastewater management tends to be a big problem in rural India. In villages like Kundli, located on the outskirts of Dehli, hundreds of factories have popped up in a matter of decades, often releasing water contaminated with chemicals directly into the ground. The problem is that these factories, which manufacture items like plastics, rubber, jewelry, and polyester, typically don’t have enough space for high-tech water treatment solutions, even if they could afford them. The pollutants in turn make their way into groundwater and nearby waterways, contaminating the local bathing and drinking water.

The Indus tile system’s algae-based bioremediation process involves placing a wastewater tank on top of the building and then allowing gravity to funnel the water though “veins” in the “leaves.” The designers traveled to India and observed the production processes of textile dyers in Panipat and bangle makers in Kolkata, where various processes release different types of heavy metals into the wastewater. The team found that one particular type of algae was able to reduce cadmium levels in the water by 10 times within 45 minutes.

Fabricated in Khurja, India, which is known for its ceramics, the Indus tiles are made of clay and deeply textured to hold onto a viscous hydrogel containing the most promising pollution-busting species of algae. The vein-like channels are shaped by an algorithm to optimize their ability to absorb pollutants. As the water flows over a tile, the microscopic algae cells absorb and store the substances for energy. The hydrogel acts as a “biological scaffold” that keeps the algae alive, and it’s biodegradable. The materials required to prepare the hydrogel and algae cells can be supplied in a powdered form and reapplied to the tiles as needed.

The modular tiles fit together into a beautiful pattern using half-lap joints, so individual tiles can be replaced as necessary without disassembling the entire wall. This also makes it easy to scale the wall size up or down, tailoring it to each site. In the future, the designers hope to integrate a second phase in which the saturated hydrogel packed with heavy metals is removed and sold to high-tech companies, which can use the metals in their own manufacturing processes. The Indus tiles are set to undergo performance tests in the UK and then a pilot project in India itself.

The creators imagine adapting Indus wall tiles to different regions and needs, making them from local materials like stone or even waste materials. Different tiles could be tailored to different pollutants, infused with the particular type of algae that works best in that context. Given that the end result is so beautiful, it’s not hard to imagine the concept extending to residential applications, too. Just imagine installing a wall of these at the edge of your own roof instead of a gutter, cleaning rainwater for personal use later on.

The post Leaf-Shaped Wall Tiles Full of Living Algae Absorb Pollutants from Rainwater first appeared on Dornob.

To incorporate that sense of bonding with the beyond, Duy and his team at Duy Le Architects decided to use lots of glass and mirrors to create duplicating illusions throughout the space.

“At some specific angles, an infinite view can be seen within the house,” he says. “Some details in the house are only half-designed and once reflected by the mirror, they will reveal the complete pattern.”

The top floor hosts a Catholic altar for linkage with ancestors, and an extra bedroom upstairs further hints at the Coco theme with a solitary guitar positioned in the corner.

exterior

The entire exterior facade is composed of curved glass bricks in a nod to the eternal waves of the ubiquitous waterways intersecting the Sóc Trăng region. They also provide an open and airy feel, allowing the indoor spaces to flow seamlessly into outdoors.

The residents also wanted to be able to run their medical business out of the house, and enjoy their hobbies of gardening and koi fish ponds. The architect maximized the small space (only 15 feet wide) by removing as many walls as possible and creating clear sightlines across both levels.

The bottom floor includes a parking area, a clinic work space, the primary bedroom, bathroom, and an open concept kitchen and living area. The kitchen island was designed to expand between six and 18 seats, according to the daily family or business needs of the residents. The lounge area in this space feels like a tropical getaway, with a giant hammock opposite the island and seating inside a boat floating in a koi pond.

To accommodate the clients’ passion for gardening, the Duy Le team created five separate gardens spanning both floors of the Coco House, with marbled pebble skylights and glass block walls providing abundant natural light for both the vegetation and koi fish.

In fact, the architects created an entire microclimate for the home by strategically placing vented glass blocks in the walls. “The design utilizes ventilation bricks to ensure protection from rainy weather. It also allows air circulation from the facade to every nook and cranny. The selection and arrangement of the ventilation bricks, which have been under thorough consideration from the architect, are set up in different directions for aesthetic aspects as well as functioning as drainage and ventilators,” says Duy Le, who adds that the pond also helps regulate the temperature within the tropical abode.

The Coco House fits in perfectly with Duy Le Architects’ mission. “Our two main design influences are sculpture and climate,” the company website says. “It all starts with being sensitive to the local climate and mitigating the effects of climate change by using readily available, cost-effective, energy efficient, sustainable materials.”

The founder adds, “I always want to create impressive and different architectural works, sustainable with time, expressing the creativity and personality of Vietnamese people, not only for Vietnamese customers but also…all over the world.”

The post Vietnam’s Zen Coco House Connects to Family and Nature first appeared on Dornob.

When she got the commission to build the central pavilion for northern Europe’s largest design event, Dutch architect Marjan van Aubel immediately looked for collaborators to help her highlight the power of the sun.

“Marjan van Aubel called us in May, asking: can you help? …Of course, it was short notice, so we had to move quickly,” explains Michiel Raaphorst, co-founder of V8 Architects. “Three days later, we met with Marjan and Miriam van der Lubbe, the Creative Head of DDW. While sketching, we came up with a surface that allows you to harvest solar energy but also forms a meaningful part of the environment.”

“We use technology to represent a natural phenomenon, and to do so, we harvest the energy from that natural phenomenon itself. So the solar pavilion represents the energy of the sun and cooperation,” Raaphorst adds. “All these parties worked together to realize this project because we all believe in Marjan van Aubel’s message: the time for a solar revolution is now.”

The two groups came up with a gazebo whose shape followed the slope of a cloth beach chair. Supported by four steel masts, the roof was fashioned from 380 wafer-thin glass solar panels in happy shades of red, orange, yellow, and blue. From above, it looked like a sun rising in a blue sky.

The collection of colorful photovoltaic tiles produced roughly 7.5 kilowatts of energy during peak performance hours, sending enough juice to an onsite battery to provide light and heat for all evening visitors. The intended effect was to allow guests to experience the sensation of sitting in the sun even in its absence.

The underside of the roof was left exposed for maximum technological transparency. “The structure contains about five thousand kilos of solar panels,” Raaphorst explains. “We deliberately left all the connections, wires, and discs visible so visitors can see how everything works. A practical view of the structure.”

The design teams also included two connecting staircases that led to a viewing porthole where visitors could have their picture taken via an app. “Up there, you suddenly find yourself in this other world: the solar field,” Raaphorst muses. Underneath the pavilion, a reflective circular bench and steel and wood seats provided places for observers to rest throughout the day.

V8 Architects and Marjan van Aubel Studio also pulled in a dozen other companies to help with parts and assembly. In keeping with the eco-friendly ethos, they borrowed most of the standard building and energy components, returning each part to its owners after the event for a circular resource design.

The architects were excited for the chance to show how earth-conscious technology like solar can and should be incorporated into everyday life. Says Raaphorst, “Currently, energy is only harvested in a techno-functional way. We explore how to integrate the sun’s energy into our daily lives so that we can love and embrace it.”

“Solar energy needs a new, more personal perspective that is part of our culture,” adds Marjan van Aubel. “This pavilion demonstrates that solar energy can be experienced and used in a new way.”

The post Colorful Solar Pavilion Brings Shade to Dutch Design Week first appeared on Dornob.

Mount Tirana takes inspiration from Albania’s distinctive mountains, celebrating the national identity and cultural heritage of the country on Southwestern Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. Its 70,000-square-foot interior will include housing, a boutique hotel, offices, a business area, commercial facilities, restaurants, cafés, and parking facilities. The ground floor, connected to adjacent parklands, will act as one big “urban living room” for the city. Mount Tirana is set within the city’s core downtown area close to the National Theater of Opera and Ballet of Albania and the National Historical Museum.

“Mountains are one of nature’s most impressive features,” said Mikkel Frost, Founding Partner and Architect at CEBRA. “Everlasting, awe-inspiring, and beautiful, they are the original landmarks. By using the mountains of Albania as our main source of inspiration, we tap into the local history, the cultural heritage, and the identity of Albania. This symbolic landmark will create an elegant connection between the ever-transforming urban fabric of Tirana and the natural surroundings — an architectural hybrid between a tower and a mountain and an international typology, which is locally anchored.”

Coming to a sharp point at its pinnacle, the new biophilic skyscraper will certainly stand out in the Tirana skyline, even with so many new and interesting architectural projects taking shape around it. The city is in the midst of a major construction boom, with other big developments in the works including MVRDV’s Downtown One Tirana, a mixed-use building with a pixelated facade; BIG’s new National Theater of Albania, which resembles a giant bow tie; and a new iteration of Stefano Boeri’s Vertical Forest, which will be covered in over 3,200 shrubs and bushes (the first two are located in Milan).

Mount Tirana was chosen by an international jury, including Albanaian Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Mayor of Tirana, four internationally acclaimed architects, and the client, Nova Construction 2012. Construction will begin immediately.

Founded in 2001 by architects Mikkel Frost, Carsten Primdahl, and Kolja Nielsen, CEBRA is an architecture and design practice based in Aarhus, Denmark. The firm employs a multidisciplinary international staff of more than 65 architects, urban planners, landscape architects, academics, and administrative personnel. They’re known for their sensitivity to the landscape, ecology, and cultural history of each site, developing projects that are visually striking yet harmonious with their surroundings.

“Empathy is at the core of how we create architecture, and we listen to the world around us to gain a deep understanding of local cultures, conditions, climate, and building traditions,” the firm states. “At the same time, we focus on creating architecture for the senses. In interdisciplinary teams we practice artistic leadership and speak up for emotional impact to create architecture that is both bold, beautiful, and useful.”

The post CEBRA’s Mount Tirana Claims the Title of Albania’s Tallest Landmark first appeared on Dornob.

Dubbed the “world’s first eco-restorative homes,” SeaPods are the brainchild of the company’s Head of Engineering Rüdiger Koch and Chief Executive Officer Grant Romund. The two partnered with Dutch architect Koen Olthuis and his firm Waterstudio to design a home suited for an aquatic lifestyle.

The pods’ floating capabilities were inspired by the physical properties of an iceberg. Just like most of the mass of an iceberg is underwater, the SeaPods have over 1,688 cubic feet of buoyant, air-filled steel tubes that rest below the surface, pushing the spherical living spaces almost 10 feet above the water.

Each Pod offers 833 square feet of living space within its three-and-a-half floors, including a master bedroom with stunning panoramic views, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The entire space is futuristically simple with hidden light switches, power outlets, and lightbulbs. LED light strips that can provide either blue-toned daytime or yellow-toned nighttime lighting are tucked within floor and ceiling grooves for a true minimalist look. Even cooler, all functions are controlled by “smart rings” worn by the residents, allowing them to turn on their music or unlock a door with just a wave of their hand.

“If Apple had built a home, I think you would end up with the SeaPod,” said Romundt in an interview with CNN. “…There’s a lot of technology built into the homes. I like to think of it as, instead of having a phone as a digital assistant, your home actually becomes your assistant, and you can use it to optimize your life.”

The pod structure is crafted to grow with changing technology. “We have designed Pods to be easily upgradable,” the company writes on their website. “There are set locations behind walls where new devices and components can be plugged in like LEGO pieces for upgraded functionality as technology improves.”

The software controlling the Pods can also be updated remotely. It will be like “a mobile phone where you can install new ‘home apps’ that are constantly being developed.” New automations and sensors can be hot swapped as needed.

Perhaps the best part of the SeaPod lifestyle is the symbiotic existence with the natural world. Instead of destroying natural habitats when a traditional house is built, “when you build a home on the water you actually create a habit for ocean life to thrive,” Ocean Builders said. “…Anytime you put something in the water that makes shade it attracts sea life. It often starts with barnacles and other life starts to grow on the underwater surface of your Pods. This can lead to coral growth and eventually homes for fish.”

The first set of pods are already under construction in Panama’s Linton Bay Marina and are scheduled to be completed and revealed online in late September. They’re expected to sell for between $295,000 to $1.5 million each, with potential buyers being able to move in at the end of 2023. An additional 1,000 pods will go into production by 2024.

Also in the works from Ocean Builders are two other pod models: the land-based GreenPod, and the eco and budget-friendly EcoPod.

The post SeaPods Provide Oceanfront Living While Restoring Life Below the Surface first appeared on Dornob.

Looking a bit like a giant bird with its pointed, beak-like front end and green “wings,” the RaceBird first took conceptual form while E1 co-founder and CEO Rodi Basso was staying at her summer house in Sweden. She noticed birds gliding over the surface of the water and imagined how that form could translate to a futuristic, environmentally friendly boat with serious competitive capabilities.

A Formula 1 engineer who previously worked with McLaren, Ferrari, and NASA, Basso founded the E1 Series all-electric race boat championship with sports entrepreneur Alejandro Agag with a goal to bring electric motorsports to rivers and oceans around the world. The duo partnered with Norwegian designer Sophi Horne, naval architect and marine engineer Brunello Acompara, SeaBird Technologies, and Victory Marine to develop, manufacture, and build the RaceBird as the official racing vessel for the E1 championship.

The RaceBird features a fully electric outboard motor produced by marine propulsion experts at Mercury Racing and a cockpit resembling a single-seater race car with a steering wheel and pedals. Designed for just one occupant — the pilot — the RaceBird is powered by a Kreisel Electric battery and uses immersion cooling technologies to maintain top performance while in motion. The hydrofoils keep the body of the RaceBird above the water to reduce drag and maximize its energy efficiency.

Engineers successfully tested the RaceBird in northern Italy in April 2022, and the vessel is now on track to compete in the E1 World Championship in Spring 2023.

“We’re now one step closer to making electric racing on the water a reality,” says Agag. “I remember very well the same scenarios we encountered during the early stages at both Formula E and Extreme E, and just like on those occasions this is a major breakthrough on E1’s journey. Seeing the RaceBird fly proves to me that we can use this exciting, new sporting platform to drive technological innovation in the marine industry and create something spectacular for fans in the cities we visit.”

“Seeing the RaceBird flying on the water for the first time was an emotional moment for myself and many others who have been working on this project over the past few months,” says Basso. “So far, the RaceBird has exceeded expectations especially with the performance, agility and cornering capabilities. The current performance levels are exactly where we wanted them to be, helping to promote exciting foil-to-foil racing close to the shoreline.”

“In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to run further tests and gather the necessary data. I’m really looking forward to showing it in public for the first time, which we’ll be announcing more on shortly. This test marks the first page of a new chapter in the electrification of the marine industry, focusing on accelerating future technologies for the benefit of our waters.”

The post All-Electric RaceBird Hydrofoil Boat Flies Over the Water at Incredible Speeds first appeared on Dornob.

Candela Electric Hydrofoils Set to Start Stockholm Routes Next Year

Well beyond a cool-sounding concept, the Candela P-12 Shuttle will become a real commuting option in the Stockholm area by next year. Capable of carrying 30 passengers at a time, this 40-foot flying electric boat relies on hydrofoils that lift it out of the water so can zoom along at up to 30 knots (34 mph or 55 km/h). It uses the equivalent of a mere 0.1 kWh of electricity per passenger kilometer, gets a range of 50 nautical miles at typical service speed, and recharges in under an hour using DC fast charging.

Those impressive speeds make the P-12 the fastest electric ship in the world, according to Candela. It’ll also be among the greenest watercraft ever produced, reducing energy usage per passenger kilometer by 95 percent compared to commercial diesel-powered ferries that are currently in use.

“Our shuttles use 80 percent less energy than conventional ships and have the ability to travel far and fast on pure electricity,” Candela states on its website. “This means a 100-percent reduction in local emissions, particulate matter, and NOx. Moreover, there is no need for oil changes and thus no risk of oil leakages. Given the reduced energy consumption, low maintenance needs, and possibility to increase passenger volumes, we estimate that operational costs [in Stockholm] will be reduced by at least 40 percent.”

The P-12 Shuttle will slash commute times between the Stockholm city center and the suburb of Ekerö from 55 minutes by subway, bus, standard ferry, or car down to just 25 minutes. Part of that time savings stems from the fact that the P-12’s hydrofoils produce virtually no wake at all, allowing it to cruise within Stockholm’s no-wake zones, which usually require conventional boats to slow down to 12 knots or less. If Candela’s nine-month trial period with the city is successful, the company will likely make additional ferries available to help free up traffic from Stockholm highways. It could also pave the way for expansion into cities like New York and San Francisco.

The Candela P-12 shuttle features a carbon fiber keel and computer-controlled hydrofoils that make up to 100 micro-adjustments per second for the smoothest possible ride, increasing comfort for passengers. It has a 180 kWh battery and is small enough to easily jet around on the water. Candela also offers a consumer version called the C-8, if you’re interested in buying one of your own (starting at €290,000).

Seagliders Slash Channel Crossings Between England and France

Another interesting idea takes the “flying ferry” name a bit more literally. Brittany Ferries says its battery-powered craft “foils like a hydrofoil, hovers like a hovercraft, and flies like a plane… with the comfort and convenience of a ferry.” This concept glider can carry 150 passengers at a time and travel at speeds of up to 180 mph (290 km/h), quite a bit larger and faster than the P-12 and a whopping six times faster than conventional ferries. Brittany Ferries says it’ll get a battery range of 180 miles (290 km).

This flying ferry works by rising on foils as it departs from a port, taking off and riding a cushion of air just a few meters above the surface of the water until it reaches its destination. The company aims to test the concept by crossing the English Channel between Portsmouth, England and Cherbourg, France in just 40 minutes, a journey that currently takes 5 hours by conventional ship.

Since it’s rising considerably higher above the water than Candela’s hydrofoil ferry, the Brittany Ferries watercraft will face additional technical and regulatory challenges, but the company says it could be operational as soon as 2025. Brittany Ferries brings its proven expertise earned through development of its high-speed catamaran Normandie Express to assist US-based startup Regent Craft with the process.

“We are particularly pleased to contribute now because it means we can bring real-world challenges and potential applications into the company’s early thinking,” says Brittany Ferries’ Ports and Operations Director Frédéric Pouget. “We hope this may help bring commercial success in the years that follow. Who knows, this could well be the birth of ferries that fly across the Channel.”

The post “Flying” Electric Hydrofoil Ferries Could Slash Commutes in Coastal Cities first appeared on Dornob.

“The opening of Air-One, backed by government funding, will revolutionize the way people and goods travel across the nation,” said Robert Courts, the UK’s minister for Aviation. “This step forward puts Britain at the vanguard of clean transport, bringing investment and high-skilled, green job opportunities to the nation.”

Urban-Air Port founder and executive chairman Ricky Sandhu agrees, adding: “The opening of Air-One is a momentous moment — the starting gun for a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier, and more connected than ever before.”

The airport was constructed in just 11 weeks across a 17,000-square-foot plot sectioned off into different zones. At its center is a 56-foot circular platform that can raise 19 feet into the air for vertical vehicle takeoff and landing. Surrounding that locus are zones for a vehicle hangar, a cargo and logistics base, a command center, a security screening area, a passenger lounge and café, and retail pop-up sites.

Even though this breakthrough airport is officially open, the aircraft to carry all the future loads of passengers and cargo aren’t quite ready for business. There are plenty of zero-emissions drones in the works and even some that are operational, but there is not yet a commercially viable eVTOL fleet.

While building the airport, Urban-Air Port also teamed up with Washington, D.C.-based Supernal, and has the company’s concept S-A1 eVTOL on display in the Air-One hangar. “The Coventry demonstration is an important first step forward to reimagining how people across the world will move, connect, and live,” says Supernal Chief Commercial Officer Mike Whitaker.

Coventry Air-One is currently more of a model, and the first of what the company intends to be a 200-site network of global air pads for eVTOL vehicles, including projects already underway in the U.S., Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Southeast Asia. It envisions these unmanned aircraft charging from off-grid hydrogen fuel cells as part of the “coming green air transportation revolution.”

Their versatility will also aid that trend, as the designs call for versions to be built on land, on water with inflatable pads, and even on top of skyscraper roofs. These tiny airports in otherwise inaccessible aircraft spaces can allow air traffic into more areas, potentially reducing automobile use along with its congestion and air-polluting emissions.

“Our patented technology allows for an ultra-compact but high-capacity infrastructure,” explains Sandhu. “Precisely what is required in complex, dense urban locations – where the demand lies, where our passengers and members work and live.

The company has also designed models for emergency or disaster management, as well as for military defense operations in remote regions.

Visitors to the Covington area can order tickets to visit Air-One and get a glimpse of the future of air traffic.

The post UK Opens the World’s First Airport for Flying Cars first appeared on Dornob.

A recent Pew Research Center poll of Americans with jobs that can be done remotely found that 60 percent of those working from home want to continue doing so when the pandemic is over. That’s great for the well-being of the workforce, but it also brings up a potential complication. As remote workers flee expensive cities around the world, demand for homes in rural areas is expected to rise, putting pressure on the few remaining undeveloped spaces we have left.

In Argentina, APS/Arquitectos Pablo Senmartin came up with a model for building houses in environmentally sensitive areas, adding to housing density without harming the ecosystem. Located in the picturesque Villa Parque Síquiman in the Cordoba province, “Bioclimatic House” takes advantage of beautiful views on a sloped parcel while barely touching the earth beneath it. The architects completed an in-depth study of current construction problems in natural areas and developed a building style that met the stringent requirements of LEED v4 sustainable housing certification.

The home is set within a mountainous area overlooking Lake San Roque, adjacent to a protected natural area. The area is characterized by extreme environmental fragility, with periods of long drought, wildfires, loss of native forest, and lack of infrastructure. But it also offers a beautiful setting with lots of opportunity for recreation, so it’s caught the eye of many Argentinians looking to relocate.

Instead of building onsite, the architects took advantage of prefabricated elements that can be dry-assembled quickly with minimal impact on the setting. At its base is a section they call “Plinth — the cave,” an earthquake-resistant structure made of reinforced concrete that allows water runoff beneath the building. It functions as a parking area and meditation space beneath a swimming pool. As the foliage grows up around it, it will virtually disappear within the landscape.

The home is accessed by a dock-like pier element at street level, which transforms into a terrace and solarium as it enters the house and terminates at the infinity-edge swimming pool, which visually blends into the lake beyond. The rest of the home is envisioned as a two-level box made of wood, steel, and glass for an overall feeling of lightness. The tightly spaced wood cladding fades into an open screen as the house stretches from the street out to the pool, opening up the views.

The home’s zero-maintenance roof is a single sheet of ventilated metal that collects rainwater in the technical room of the plinth. The home is insulated with washed sheep’s wool, and the floors are made of sustainably sourced pine wood. Local recycled materials were incorporated wherever possible.

“The incorporation of time in the architectural space, through a succession of vertical elements that accelerate the view towards the landscape, this relationship changes during the course of hours and days,” say the architects. “The harmony [and] color of the material represents an abstraction of the color of the surrounding nature [and proves that] in the end, environmental quality is what matters when it comes to living.”

The post Bioclimatic House: A Responsible Way to Add Homes to Sensitive Natural Areas first appeared on Dornob.

One potential option is a new biomass material made from an unexpected source: rice. Grown in more than a hundred countries, rice is the world’s most popular cereal crop, and its starch can be modified into a bio-based resin that behaves a lot like synthetic polyethylene plastic.

A Japanese furniture company called Meuble Co. Ltd. is developing a material they call RICEWAVE to replace the polyethylene they typically use to produce the cushions for their furniture, like the Dorothy Sofa Bed pictured below. Working with partner companies Biomass Resin Holdings and Mitsui & Co. Plastics Ltd., Meuble has spent the last five years prototyping products made with biomass materials.

Rice stood out as a strong contender because it’s grown locally to the company, within Japan. Not only does rice resin make use of inedible waste rice that normally gets thrown away, it can also be purpose-grown in abandoned agricultural areas of the country as an economic stimulant.

“Abandoned cultivated land in Japan is vast, exceeding the size of two Tokyo metropolitan areas,” the company explains, adding: “We have started making rice for rice resin in this abandoned land, which will lead to agricultural support and aim to revitalize the region.”

Using bio-based rice resin instead of petroleum-based plastic comes with another benefit: lower CO2 emissions. Mitsui & Co., which specializes in raw materials, says replacing just 30 percent of the petroleum-based plastic in a shopping bag with rice biomass can cut emissions by 30 percent.

Meuble Co. hopes RICEWAVE will ultimately replace polyethylene altogether in its core material, the petroleum-based “LITEWAVE,” which it produces using in-house patented technology. As is usually the case when attempting to switch to bio-based materials, that will require big changes to the manufacturing process. It won’t be cheap or easy, but Meuble Co. thinks it will be worth it, especially if they’re successful at proving rice-based furniture materials perform just as well as their synthetic alternatives.

Rice resin can also be used to replace at least some of the petroleum-based materials in trash bags, cutlery, toys, food packaging, and other consumer products. Currently, many so-called biodegradable packaging materials don’t fully break down in the environment because they contain small quantities of synthetic polymers like polyolefin. Replacing those polymers with rice resin or similar bio-based materials could actually make biodegradable products more durable and give them the ability to replace synthetic fiber-reinforced plastics in all kinds of products, even within the automotive industry.

Other parts of rice plants can be diverted to similarly eco-friendly uses. Though currently the standard practice is to simply let it rot, rice waste like husks, straw, and bran could be used for building materials, fertilizer, biomass fuels and more.

The post RICEWAVE: A New Eco-Friendly Furniture Material Made of Inedible Rice first appeared on Dornob.

When a Swedish newspaper publicized a year ago that there were more than 200 electric scooters lying at the bottom of the Malmö canals, four designers banded together to solve the problem, creating a company called Andra Formen, or “Second Form” in Swedish.

“We let others’ bad decisions inspire us and take our starting point in mistakes when we start a new project. How could a material, a place, or a phenomenon be made differently? Could [it] be done better?” the team writes on their website.

They started by enlisting the aid of two brave divers to fish abandoned two-wheelers out of the murky water. “Some of them had barnacles growing on them,” co-founder Christian Svensson notes. The designers estimated that many of electric transporters hadn’t even survived a year of usefulness before being ditched in the seaway.

After giving each scooter a good scrub, the team took them apart and laid out their inventory of components, looking for design revelations. The result is a collection of desk and floor lamps, a chair, a hydroponic planter, and a grill, all under the name “E-metabolism.”

“Our mission is to turn toxic waste in the form of electric scooters from the bottom of the canal into pieces of art,” adds Oskar Olsson, who designed many of the pieces himself. He adds: “We tried to stay true to the shapes of the scooters. Some even have dents and scratches, and they tell a story about the life it had before.”

Olsson and Svesson, along with partners Jingbei Zheng and Peder Nilsson, used the original parts as much as possible: a dead battery for the base of the floor lamp, handlebars and decks for the chair legs and seat, hubcaps as a base for the desk lamp, and handlebars for the lamp neck and head. Connector pieces from the cast-off scooters fashion the furniture together, with a few bits of 3D-printed material here and there tying it all together.

The aesthetic of the pieces has a colorful modern feel with an air of recycled chic, keeping the original hues and branding from the salvaged Voi, Bolt, and Tier scooters. While the playfully quirky furniture would be difficult to scale up based on the limited supply of scooters from waterway graveyards, the intention behind the work is a helpful reminder of our responsibility to preserve natural resources.

“We wanted to show that you can actually do something with waste,” says Svensson. “It doesn’t need to go to the dump.”

The group adds that “With this project we want to challenge our contemporaries to look past environmental degradation and see how today’s materials can be resources tomorrow.”

All the repurposed products in the E-metabolism line are on display on the Andre Formen website, with prices ranging from $200 to $800. Interested parties must fill out an email form for potential purchases.

The post Sunken E-Scooters Get New Life as Recycled Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

The team, led by Yushan Yan, a professor at the university, and Henry Belin du Pont, Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has spent the last 15 years searching for a way to eliminate the CO2 problem in the fuel cells. In a paper released in the journal Nature, they explained how their problem might actually be a solution to drastically reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That means it has serious climate change-fighting potential.

“Once we dug into the mechanism, we realized the fuel cells were capturing just about every bit of carbon dioxide that came into them, and they were really good at separating it to the other side,” says Brian Setzler, Assistant Professor for Research in Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering.

The team leveraged this “self-purging” ability to create a carbon dioxide separator that could be placed upstream from their fuel cell stacks. “It turns out our approach is very effective,” Yan says. “We can capture 99 percent of the carbon dioxide out of the air in one pass if we have the right design and the right configuration.”

This was achieved by a somewhat risky process of embedding the power source for the electrochemical technology inside the separation membrane, which involved internally short-circuiting the device. “And by using this internal electrically shorted membrane, we were able to get rid of the bulky components, such as bipolar plates, current collectors, or any electrical wires typically found in a fuel cell stack,” says Lin Shi, a doctoral candidate in the Yan group and the paper’s lead author.

This short-cut makes it easier for the carbon dioxide particles to travel from one side of the device to the other, and allows the team to pack the whole thing into a smaller package capable of filtering greater quantities of air at a time. Their first prototype, about the size of a soda can, was designed to scrub CO2 from a vehicle’s exhaust. It’s capable of filtering about 10 liters of air per minute and removing about 98 percent of CO2.

A second, smaller version measuring 2 by 2 inches can continuously remove about 99 percent of carbon dioxide in air flowing at a rate of two liters per minute. The device can also be scaled up as necessary for larger applications, like on aircraft, spacecraft, and submarines. Though the researchers don’t say as much, that seems to open up the potential for after-market emissions-reducing devices on existing vehicles powered by fossil fuels. After all, these vehicles aren’t just going to disappear once electric cars become more standard.

While this is all great news, some scientists are urging us not to get too excited. Carbon capture alone isn’t enough to avert the climate crisis, and it would be easy to use this breakthrough as an excuse to slow the transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner technologies. At the end of the day, we need a multi-pronged approach if we’re going to avoid total catastrophe in the not-so-distant future.

The post Scientists Accidentally Found a Way to Clean 99% of CO2 Out of the Air first appeared on Dornob.

This could involve anything from incorporating energy-saving techniques and solutions to the use of materials that are more environmentally friendly. Anything that contributes to spaces that are carefully curated to play a positive part in the world around them.

TAKK’s “The Day After House” aims to do exactly that. The Barcelona-based design studio recently took environmental awareness in interior design to the next level with this renovated 110-square-meter apartment in Madrid that has been “developed with the aim of updating the domestic space according to new models of use and environmental consciousness,” as discussed in a recent article.

But how does one achieve the perfect blend of “environmental consciousness” and forward-thinking (yet attractive) design aesthetics?

Firstly, focus on a strategy that redefines more traditional layouts. Rather than rely on a blend of rooms and corridors more commonly seen in apartments, the studio’s approach focuses more on the climactic specifics of each space. Though distinct, the spaces still work in tandem to save energy.

A spokesperson for the studio explains: “As if it were the layers of an onion, the spaces of the house get nested each one inside of another…as we get close to the central spaces…they get more and more insulated and have less needs in terms of extra energy.” This type of “climatic diverse distribution” is ideal for a climate like Madrid’s, where blistering heat waves make up the summer months and more intense, colder periods dominate the winter.

The next thing to consider is the materials. Here, TAKK aimed to prioritize things like wood and natural cork (both known for having low CO2 emissions) to insulate the home effectively and manage energy loss. It also doesn’t hurt that the two materials work well together aesthetically.

The third and final concept of the design was influenced by both economic and environmental concerns: effectively only building about half of the apartment’s square footage and leaving the other half completely empty, devoid of even windows. Essentially creating two houses for the price of one, the design scheme imagines the apartment as being akin to an empty shoebox, where 60 square meters is a perfectly insulated space (dubbed Winter House) and the remaining 50 square meters exists as an interior terrace (appropriately named Summer House).

This ingenious setup allows for the cement mortar finish on the winter house to capture heat in the summer, essentially “stealing it from the interior air [of the summer house],” as the architects explain.

The L-shaped space is then further enhanced with open configurations in both the kitchen and single, more communal bedroom —yet another way the unit encourages the concept of equitable space, regardless of the number of inhabitants.

Through their creative use of “climatic diverse distribution,” low-emissions materials, and energy-saving considerations throughout the renovated Day After House, TAKK has created an apartment that’s both aesthetically adventurous and environmentally sound.

The post Madrid’s Day After House is Eco-Conscious Design at Its Finest first appeared on Dornob.

Matt Soule, who worked for the famed aerospace company for 13 years, got the idea to create a nimble electric fleet of smart cargo trains after watching a YouTube video that came through on his feed in 2019, shortly after leaving SpaceX. Armed with a great idea, he recruited two former colleagues, John Howard and Ben Stabler, to help him found the new venture which they call Parallel Systems.

The concept is both green and efficient. Freight trains already use a lot less energy than trucking, requiring just a quarter of the power needed to keep a semi-truck going.

“But because of how rail is architected, it has its operational and economic limits,” explained Soule in a recent interview with CNBC. “…If you can break through those barriers and allow rail to serve more of these markets — that’s the opportunity.”

Thanks to labor and fuel costs, traditional rail transport generally requires long lines of 200 or more cars to make it economical, but it can be difficult to find railyards large enough to park and load these behemoth cargo chains. This reduces the number of routes these trains can travel, making them more expensive and less flexible.

That’s where Parallel Systems’ battery-electric smart platooning rail vehicles come in. The units are teamed up in pairs, each holding one end of a freight car. Together they are strong enough to carry the weight of two stacked boxcars.

With smart tech like “camera-based perception systems,” the trains are autonomous and can be linked together with other pairs to form “platoons” of cargo. They can also be programmed to automatically detach from each other at any point along the route, allowing just a few boxcars to head to a more remote location and better compete with the flexibility of semi-truck transport.

Even better, the Parallel Systems trains can be autonomously loaded by overhead smart machines in ports or depots, eliminating costly manpower and time. Sticking with trains of just 10 to 50 freight cars instead of the traditional 200-plus lines, loading will take a fraction of the time, saving even more money.

And the electric batteries will help reduce greenhouse gases, too. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation creates 29 percent of all U.S. emissions each year. Although the company has not yet settled on a battery type, just by using electric power, the engines can be smaller and have the potential to be net-neutral in carbon production.

Based on Parallel’s prototype, each smart train will be able to trek 500 miles on a single charge, and only need one hour to fully reload its battery.

The trains could also help the flow of traffic around train crossings. They will already be much shorter than traditional freight trains, so they’ll go through crossings much faster, but they can also separate as needed when blocking traffic. That feature will also allow emergency vehicles to get through quicker and safer.

After a few years of research, prototyping, and test runs, the company went public on January 19th, 2022, declaring a $50 million Series A funding goal led by Anthos Capital. Soule is encouraged by the “universally positive” conversations his team has had with key players like class one railroads, ocean carriers, ports, and shortline rail holding companies.

“No matter how many PowerPoint presentations we give them, as soon as they come see it in person, you can see the lightbulb come on,” he says.

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