Archives for: February 2010

02/24/10

Permalink 06:35:32 am, by Zweig Email , 85 words, 20 views   English (US)
Categories: Green Design, Health, Appropriate Technology (General)

Jaipur Foot - the $40 Dollar Prosthetic

Designed in, and named for Jaipur, India; the prosthetic leg was designed to be inexpensive, quick to fit and manufacture, and to be water-resistant. The jaipur foot is fitted free of cost by Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sahyata Samiti, founded by Devendra Raj Mehta. It costs approximately U.S. $40. Dow India supports Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sahayta Samiti with polyurethene which is the new material used in the production of the prostheses. The new material increases the durability and the convenience of the leg.

Permalink 06:14:54 am, by magerko Email , 23 words, 10 views   English (US)
Categories: Health

George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp

[youtube]95321F21F37BCFF3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=37[/youtube]

Both an interesting concept and approach to building a technology.

02/23/10

Permalink 04:58:05 am, by magerko Email , 5 words, 9 views   English (US)
Categories: Development

UNICEF: Sport for Development

Permalink 04:44:55 am, by magerko Email , 29 words, 16 views   English (US)
Categories: Development, Appropriate Technology (General)

Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge

How to empower children and create lasting change through "i can."

Video ends at 9:29 seconds after that some sort of commercial about traffic.

02/17/10

Permalink 09:30:27 pm, by samson Email , 0 words, 12 views   English (US)
Categories: Hygiene and Sanitation

Bio-Latrines in the Slums of Africa

Permalink 09:04:47 pm, by pavlak Email , 9 words, 28 views   English (US)
Categories: Appropriate Technology (General)

Earth Formed Concrete Storage Tank

Construction of spherical water storage tank.

Permalink 08:15:22 pm, by stewart Email , 17 words, 18 views   English (US)
Categories: Appropriate Technology (General)

Where to find water during a disaster

Designed for USA, but beneficial information no matter where you are.

02/16/10

Permalink 04:01:32 am, by Zweig Email , 125 words, 31 views   English (US)
Categories: Climate Change, Green Design, Appropriate Technology (General)

Smog-Eating Cement

"Take ordinary cement. Mix in an agent called a photo-catalyzer (titanium dioxide, if you really want to know), which speeds up the natural process that breaks down smog into its component parts. Now start paving things with the stuff. That's what they're doing in Segrate, an Italian town near Milan. The smog-eating cement is called TX Active, and the Italian firm Italcementi spent 10 years developing it. Now there's a busy street in Segrate that's covered with it, and Italcementi claims it has reduced nitric oxides in the area by as much as 60%. Bonus: buildings made with TX Active stay cleaner too." - TIME Magazine, TIME's Best Inventions of 2008

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854176,00.html

Permalink 03:49:23 am, by Zweig Email , 111 words, 37 views   English (US)
Categories: Efficient Cook Stoves

The StoveTec - Aprovecho's Rocket Stove

Easy to light and easy to use, StoveTec Stoves make cooking with wood or charcoal effective and enjoyable. Cooks can boil 1 gallon (5 liters) of water in 20 minutes using just three 1.5 inch in diameter, 12 inch long sticks of wood (4 x 30 cm). One additional stick is enough to simmer for another 45 minutes. Designed and built to cook three meals a day, every day, StoveTec Stoves are durable and dependable.

Stove Features:
* 23,900 BTU of Cooking Power
* Rugged Cast Iron Stove Top Available in Multiple Sizes
* Easy-To-Clean Steel Body
* Sturdy, Heat Resistant Handles
Stove Includes:
* Steel Stick Support
* Adjustable Pot Skirt (fits pot sizes between 5” and 11”)

Prices:
* Wood Stove = $37
* Wood-Charcoal Stove = $40

02/15/10

Permalink 07:08:04 pm, by march Email , 73 words, 24 views   English (US)
Categories: Appropriate Technology (General)

StormwaterPA: Porous Pavement

Pervious pavement / porous pavement consists of a permeable surface course underlain by a uniformly-graded stone bed. Stormwater drains through the surface, is temporarily held in the voids of the stone bed, and then slowly drains into the underlying, uncompacted soil mantle. The Morris Arboretum, in Philadelphia, PA, has successfully integrated this BMP into its parking areas to control rainwater runoff and help improve water quality in the local creek.

Permalink 06:44:42 pm, by march Email , 123 words, 31 views   English (US)
Categories: Hygiene and Sanitation

Constructing an ecosan toilet -- A film from UNICEF

Ecological Sanitation is an important new approach to sanitation, which is truly sustainable. It uses almost no water in its operation, and human waste products are used as fertilizer. So three major objectives are achieved:
-- saving on water, a critically scarce resource
-- non-pollution of the environment by human waste, a major cause of disease and loss of human life
-- 'closing the nutrient cycle' : the nutrients (primarily Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and carbon matter) in our excreta goes back into the soil for re-use by plants. Instead of a one-way process where chemicals are mined and used for each crop produced, the same chemicals are returned to the soil for reuse.

This movie was created by UNICEF

Permalink 06:36:56 pm, by march Email , 48 words, 30 views   English (US)
Categories: Water and Sanitation (WATSAN)

WATER: Scarcity and Pollution in Nepal

Director of Nepal Water for Health, Umesh Pandey, talks about water issues in Nepal.

Learn more about this project at South Asia's Troubled Waters: http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showpro...

And join the conversation by sharing your story about water here: http://waterwars.pulitzergateway.org/...

Permalink 06:29:40 pm, by march Email , 350 words, 57 views   English (US)
Categories: Biomass

BSP Biogas Sector Partnership, Nepal, Domestic biogas - Ashden Award winner

This video can be downloaded here: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/bsp BSP won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2005. To find out more visit the link above and check out the Ashden Awards Blog http://ashdenawards.blogspot.com

The Biogas Sector Partnership (BSP) in Nepal managed the installation of over 124,000 domestic biogas plants in Nepal between 1992 and 2005. The plants use cattle manure to provide biogas for cooking and lighting. In addition, about 75% of the plants incorporate toilets.

About 80% of the 4.2 million households in Nepal use fuelwood, cattle-dung cakes and agricultural residues for cooking, and kerosene for lighting. Demand for fuelwood substantially exceeds the rate of regrowth, and this is leading to degradation of the land and damage to vital watersheds. Cooking indoors over open fires, and lighting with kerosene, gives dangerous exposure to air pollutants and a high risk of fire, particularly for women and young children who spend much of their time indoors. In addition, women and girls have the drudgery of collecting fuelwood, which typically takes three hours each day.

The Ashden judges commended this project for the many benefits which it provides. The biogas plants replace nearly all the use of fuelwood, and make cooking easier, cleaner and safer. In 20% of houses biogas provides safer lighting as well. This saving of unsustainable fuelwood use also reduces carbon dioxide emissions. The provision of toilets improves sanitation; and the effluent from the biogas plant is a valuable organic compost.

The use of cattle dung to generate biogas is well known in the Indian subcontinent, but in no other place has it been used with such success as in Nepal. The scale of the programme is remarkable. Biogas already serves about one million people (4% of the population of Nepal), and the biogas sector provides about 11,000 permanent jobs in the country. If anyone needed to be convinced that 'small scale can be big' then they need look no further! The Ashden judges also recognised the excellent collaboration between different organisations (BSP, government, construction companies, donors, finance organisations) in order to achieve such outstanding results.

Permalink 06:20:18 pm, by march Email , 319 words, 67 views   English (US)
Categories: Biomass

Shaanxi Mothers, China, Domestic biogas for cooking & light - Ashden Award winner

This video can be downloaded here: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/s... Shaanxi Mothers won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2006. To find out more visit the link above and check out the Ashden Awards Blog http://ashdenawards.blogspot.com

The Shaanxi Mothers' Environmental Protection Volunteer Association (Shaanxi Mothers) is led by its founder Mrs Wang Mingying. It has installed 1,294 biogas plants in rural farming households in the Shaanxi Province of China since 1999. The plants produce biogas from pig and human waste.

The extensive use of wood and coal that has helped to fuel China's rapid economic growth has led to serious environmental damage. In Shaanxi Province (west China), soil erosion on the hillsides is widespread and springtime flow in the rivers has diminished to a fraction of the 'normal' flow. Erosion leads to dust storms and poor outdoor air quality. The use of coal and wood on open fires produces significant pollution. Faced with these problems, the Chinese Government has restricted tree-felling and ordered the re-forestation of the terraced hillsides. Farmers are paid to plant trees and ensure that they survive, and are encouraged to keep pigs. Subsidies are provided to encourage the use of biogas.

Shaanxi Mothers promotes the use of biogas plants connected to the pigsties. These plants provide clean fuel for cooking and lighting, improve sanitation and hygiene and help prevent further environmental degradation. The solid residue from the plants is a valuable fertiliser. Users pay about one third of the cost of the plant which can be covered by the savings they make on fuel and fertiliser within one to two years. Subsidies from the government and Shaanxi Mothers provide the remainder of the cost.

The Ashden Award to the Shaanxi Mothers' Environmental Protection Volunteer Association recognises the tremendous commitment of a small volunteer organisation in bringing the health and environmental benefits of biogas to rural communities in China.

Permalink 06:10:28 pm, by march Email , 198 words, 10 views   English (US)
Categories: Biomass

BIOTECH, India, Turning food waste into biogas - Ashden Award winner

This video can be downloaded here: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/b... BIOTECH won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2007. To find out more visit the link above and check out the Ashden Awards Blog http://ashdenawards.blogspot.com

BIOTECH has succeeded in tackling the problem of the dumping of food waste in the streets of Kerala through the installation of biogas plants that use the food waste to produce gas for cooking and, in some cases, electricity for lighting; the residue serves as a fertiliser. To date BIOTECH has built and installed an impressive 12,000 domestic plants (160 of which also use human waste from latrines to avoid contamination of ground water), 220 institutional plants and 17 municipal plants that use waste from markets to power generators. The disposal of food waste and the production of clean energy are not the only benefits of BIOTECH's scheme. The plants also replace the equivalent of about 3.7 tonnes/day of LPG and diesel which in turn results in the saving of about 3,700 tonnes/year of CO2, with further savings from the reduction in methane production as a result of the uncontrolled decomposition of waste, and from the transport of LPG.

02/10/10

Permalink 08:49:06 pm, by pavlak Email , 8 words, 20 views   English (US)
Categories: Renewable Energy, Biogas, Appropriate Technology (General), Energy (General)

How Does a Biogas Plant Work?

Modern Biogas Operation Demonstration

Permalink 08:12:32 pm, by Kevin Feeley Email , 258 words, 59 views   English (US)
Categories: Cooking Techniques, Efficient Cook Stoves, Appropriate Technology (General)

Wood-Gas Stove

This is a video of how to make a wood gas stove. A wood gas stove uses to stages of combustion. Stage 1 converts the wood to a gas, and stage 2 combustion the gas with the help of addition high temperature oxygen (or air) inlet near the gas combustion zone. The gas combustion zone is above the wood combustion zone.

Note, in the video, the two sets of vent holes—one set at the bottom of the outer (bean) can and one set at the top of the inner (soup) can. The bottom vent holes inlet air for both stages of combustion; a fraction of the inlet air passes directly into the bottom of the inner can and is used for combustion of the wood (stage 1), while the reaming fraction of the inlet air is heated as it passes up between the walls of inner and out cans, and finally through the top vent hole of the inner can. This is the high temperature air is what drives the stage 2 combustion process.

Some models use a small fan to “force” inlet air. Wood-gasification is one of the cleanest forms of combustion because it not only combusts the wood, but it subsequently combusts the gas produced from the initial combustion of the wood. This gas usually contains several pollutants, so when the gas is combusted, many of the pollutants get destroyed. Also, these stoves produce extremely high temperatures and are therefore very efficient.

Commonly referred to as wood gasifiers or wood-gas stoves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZitudZB7Xo

Permalink 12:29:25 am, by sigmon Email , 18 words, 19 views   English (US)
Categories: Biogas

Construccion Biodigestor

This is a more appropriate biodigestor in Spanish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9US5eal0P8

Permalink 12:25:23 am, by sigmon Email , 8 words, 10 views   English (US)
Categories: Biogas

Construya un Biodigestor Sencillo III

02/03/10

Permalink 09:59:44 pm, by simmonds Email , 34 words, 12 views   English (US)
Categories: Sustainability, Appropriate Technology (General)

Susatinable farming

An alternative model for farming based on zero use of fossil fuels. The main idea is to follow a natural model where different animals make the work that machines do.

Permalink 09:51:08 pm, by simmonds Email , 32 words, 15 views   English (US)
Categories: Climate Change, Appropriate Technology (General)

Climate change in Ayaviri

An interview with a local in the Peruvian high Andes in Ayaviri. The lack of water from glacier melt is visible and making the poor even poorer.

How to make a composting toilet (from Surfers Without Borders)

Permalink 06:18:31 pm, by pavlak Email , 18 words, 37 views   English (US)
Categories: Micro Hydropower, Water Mills, Appropriate Technology (General), Micro-turbines

Pico Hydro (UTeM)

"table top" pico hydro system for small device charging and lighting.

Permalink 02:57:25 pm, by magerko Email , 25 words, 12 views   English (US)
Categories: Geographical Information Systems GIS, Appropriate Technology (General)

Putting Science Into Action

Using GIS to track deforestation can help communties see the need for and help in the development of land use plans.

Permalink 06:47:37 am, by magerko Email , 34 words, 13 views   English (US)
Categories: Health, Appropriate Technology (General)

Community-based health centers in Senegal

Community-based health centers are improving survival rates of children in Senegal. A particularly interesting bit of this video is the inclusion of grandmothers as a part of the solution.

Permalink 06:19:44 am, by magerko Email , 46 words, 26 views   English (US)
Categories: Health

UNICEF: Promoting safe sanitation practices in Bangladesh

Athoi, a community member who received training on good health and sanitation practices, uses her knowledge to help her community in Bangladesh. By making visits to houses and teaching school children, her message has created successful behavior change in her community.

02/02/10

02/01/10

Permalink 07:49:40 pm, by stewart Email , 11 words, 14 views   English (US)
Categories: Appropriate Technology (General)

Cow Sh*t to Clean Water

Uncultured Project review of LifeStraw filter.

Video Collection

This is a collection of existing videos on Sustainable and Appropriate Solutions used in the world today.The videos are divided by topics into several categories and sub-categories (see below).

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