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Microbes turn harmful methane into soil nutrients
CategoriesSustainable News

Microbes turn harmful methane into soil nutrients

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The move to get to net zero is often focused heavily on CO2, but methane, which has an 84-86 times higher global warming potential than CO2 in a 20-year period, is also rapidly accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere. One reason for the increase in methane levels is that conventional agriculture practices have degraded soil health, causing a loss of naturally occurring, methane-digesting microbes.

A solution being developed by agritech startup Windfall Bio involves capturing methane and transforming it into living organic fertiliser. Windfall Bio uses a proprietary, nature-based technology to capture methane and use it to enrich methane-eating microbes that are found in soils. These organisms consume the methane, while also capturing nitrogen from the air, and transform these naturally into organic fertiliser.

Windfall Bio’s process takes place on-site, allowing agricultural enterprises such as farms and dairies to transform waste emissions into high-value organic fertiliser. This can either be used directly or sold to organic farms to generate new revenue streams.

The company recently announced it raised $9 million (around €8.3 million) in a seed round led by Mayfield and venture fund Untitled, with participation from additional investors. The capital raised will be used to begin pilot deployments on farms and to accelerate research and development (R&D) activities. Windfall Bio plans to enter broad commercial deployment soon.

There is growing concern about the role of methane in global warming. Luckily, this concern is beginning to be met with new innovations aimed at reducing methane levels. In the archive, Springwise has spotted the use of seaweed to tackle methane emissions from cattle and a plant that turns manure – a major source of methane – into biogas.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Using insects to turn waste into valuable products
CategoriesSustainable News

Using insects to turn waste into valuable products

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: According to a paper from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, 36 per cent of the world’s crop calories are actually used for animal feed, which is an inefficient way of producing food. For example, it takes about 100 calories of grain to produce just 12 calories of chicken or three calories of beef. However, a biotech startup in India is developing a more efficient way to feed livestock – using insects.

Instead of growing grain, Loopworm farms black soldier flies and processes them into animal feed products. The insects are raised on food waste sourced from food processors, retail chains, and fruit markets. Once grown, the insects are processed into animal and fish feed.

The finished meal is high in protein, containing around 60 per cent crude protein. The company also claims that it is rich in bio-active peptides which promote anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial properties. Because of this, it can be used as an ingredient in fish, poultry, and even pet food formulations as a replacement for fish meal. The feed also has a lower ash content than traditional meals, which makes it more digestible.

Co-founders Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri set up Loopworm to help solve India’s food waste problem. Bagaria explains: “Our major concern was that we had a significant amount of food waste in India … and there wasn’t much of a meaningful solution, where food waste is actually upcycled. There are solutions like composting, or biogas generation, which actually down cycles the product.”

Insect farming has been gaining traction in recent years as entrepreneurs and scientists search for alternative ways of producing protein for animal and human consumption. Some other innovations that Springwise has spotted include using insects to produce aquaculture feed, and a project that converts waste into animal feed using insects.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Bend, Curl, Twist and Turn: 7 Steel Structures Establishing New Frontiers for Building Envelopes
CategoriesArchitecture

Bend, Curl, Twist and Turn: 7 Steel Structures Establishing New Frontiers for Building Envelopes

By Zarkon Group,

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletter. 

Steel is a rather overlooked material when it comes to building facades. Most commonly used for structural purposes, its function is often limited to framing systems and building foundations. What happens when we bring steel to the forefront of a building’s design? Can these shifts tease out the material’s ‘hidden’ properties? These projects reveal different approaches to manipulating steel as an intricate façade element, revelling in its flexibility as a malleable cladding material. In these projects, steel takes the form of fins, perforated meshes, orthogonal steel patios and even metallic spider legs.

Barceloneta

By MiAS Arquitectes, Barcelona, Spain

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The Barceloneta Market project celebrates the local character and unique qualities of the Barceloneta neighborhood, currently one of the most popular destinations within Barcelona. Inspired by the work of Spanish artist César Manrique’s fantastic fish, MiAS Arquitects designed a series of steel beams that closely resembled fragments of fish bones. These were later attached on the existing market steel façade, creating a floating roof that playfully curls and uncurls over the market square.

The malleability of steel-constructed “fish bones” allowed MiAS Arquitects to capture the liveliness and enthusiasm of César Manrique’s art as well as the social ambiance of a coastal, local food market and expanding it towards the rest of the city.

The Spider’s Thread

By Hideo Horikawa Architect & Associates, Waco, Saitama

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Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health

By Gehry Partners, Las Vegas, NV, United States

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When thinking of “dancing steel façades” a specific architect comes to mind: Frank Gehry. The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is a research facility in Las Vegas that aims at curing Alzheimer’s disease. Gehry’s intent was to design a building that served both as a statement to the facility’s ambition as well as a distinctive place for both researchers and patients to inhabit. A steel trellis skin wraps around two distinctive building blocks. In addition, by echoing the Las Vegas architectural typology, this flexible, freestanding structure creates a grand cathedral-like event space. This “dancing assembly” becomes a smart marketing gesture, whose aim is to bring the desirable attention to the foundation.

Augmented Structures

By Alper Derinboğaz, Salon, İstanbul, Turkey

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Argul Weave

By BINAA I Building INnovation Arts Architecture, Bursa, Turkey

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The Argul Weave building literally “threaded” its program on its façade. This new textiles hub is located in Bursa, home to Turkey’s historic textile industry. Meanwhile, inspired by the district’s manufacturing traditions, BINAA wrapped the building’s façade with interweaving, giant, white looms. Using digital fabrication tools, mathematical equations and detailed construction practices, a team of designers, architects and researchers developed a flexible steel structure that effectively generated “thread geometries” that enveloped the building. Through original steel fabrication practices the Argul Weave project materialised a symbolic façade that instigated the regeneration of Bursa’s industrial urban fabric.

P.E.M Vitré

By Tetrarc Architectes, Vitré, France

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Apart from shaping organic forms, steel can also be used to design intricate cladding patterns. P.E.M Vitré is a mixed-use planning and landscape project located in Vitré Station, France. It consists of an intricately designed footbridge and a much plainer underground car park. Still, Tetrarc Architectes designed the car park’s facade with a twist. Perforated steel cladding dresses its exterior elevation with an intricate pattern. Evidently, what could easily have been a blunt parking lot facade is now transformed into a playful pattern that interacts with the passing cars and pedestrians. The perforated pattern copies the footbridge’s linear form and creates a semitransparent visual threshold into the city.

Valby Machinery Halls – Assembly Hall

By C.F. Møller Architects, Copenhagen, Denmark

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This last project successfully uses steel both as a structural as well as a cladding material. Valby Machinery Hall is an old industrial, listed building that has transformed into Multi-Housing units and commercial spaces. Red-lead steel grating structure is the protagonist of the building’s façade. Consequently, C.F. Møller Architects followed this characteristic industrial motif through to the new building additions. The same rhythmic cadence clads the new residential halls, while serving as a structure for external balconies. This hybrid use of steel reveals the dual properties of the overlooked material and showcases new approaches to more sustainable and waste-less material practices.

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletter. 

Reference

Small turbines turn almost any river into a hydroelectric power source
CategoriesSustainable News

Small turbines turn almost any river into a hydroelectric power source

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Rivers and canals that have mostly been overlooked as sources of renewable energy could begin providing enough power for an entire community. Belgian company Turbulent has developed vortex turbines that are small enough for use in almost any river or canal. Called Living Rivers, the systems of turbines all have impellers that move at a low enough speed to allow marine life to pass safely through the entire structure.

Requiring a minimum of a 1.5-metre drop in height, and a flow of 1.5 cubic metres per second for at least nine months of the year, the turbines provide a constancy of power in comparison to the variability of other renewable energy sources. Turbulent’s teams work closely with local communities to design, build, and manage each project.

A regular, although not onerous, maintenance schedule helps keep the turbines in good mechanical condition. Remote control access makes it easy to adjust the system, and Turbulent’s designs never impede the natural flow of the river. Rather, they help locals clean the waterway. A large trash rack plus protective mesh gathers rubbish and prevents it from travelling further downstream or harming the turbine.

Springwise previously covered Turbulent earlier in the startup’s development. Since then, the company has delivered projects in Bali, Chile, Estonia, France, and Portugal. Projects in the USA, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are in progress. Springwise has also been tracking the global growth of hydropower more broadly, spotting a hydroelectric dam built by robots, a turbine design that allows fish to pass safely, and a solar-hydro hybrid project in Thailand.

Written by: Keely Khoury

22nd July 2022

Email: info@turbulent.be

Website: turbulent.be

Reference

A platform makes it easy to turn smartphones into multimedia museum guides
CategoriesSustainable News

A platform makes it easy to turn smartphones into multimedia museum guides

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Almost anyone who has been to a museum will be familiar with audio or multimedia guides – devices that provide still images, video clips, sound effects, music, and spoken commentary to accompany an exhibition. The first of these devices was developed in 1952 at the Stedlijik Museum in Amsterdam, and, over time, they have developed into the familiar iPod-like device still in use today. These bespoke devices can be cumbersome for users and expensive for smaller exhibitions. Now, startup Shoutr Labs has developed a system that is both easy to use and easy to develop.

Shoutr’s platform not only turns visitor’s smartphones into multimedia guides – it also makes it easy for museums and other attractions to develop those guides without programming expertise. It includes a content management system (CMS) with a drag and drop app builder, multilingual content, and the ability to easily manage content. Visitors can access the system on their smartphones without downloading an app.

The system is used together with the shoutr.Boxx, which saves all content in a local storage location. By allowing users to retrieve the data on the attractions’ local wireless network, the shoutr.Boxx removes the need for visitors to use mobile data (a potential issue for holidaymakers with high roaming charges or a poor connection). Shoutr also makes it possible for attractions to incorporate advanced features into their presentation, such as Augmented Reality.

Springwise has spotted several innovations that aim to make the arts more broadly accessible. These include a foundation using digital technology and a floating museum to bring contemporary art to the masses, and an AR art exhibition in the London skyline.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

13th May 2022

Website: shoutrlabs.com

Contact: shoutrlabs.com/en/contact

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