recycled blankets

Using CO2 to Make Concrete + Calera

Turning CO2 into Fuels

3-D Printer Creates Entire Buildings From Solid Rock

Imagine a 3-d printer so large that it can spit out entire buildings made from stone. Sounds science fiction-y, right? But that’s exactly what designer Enrico Dini created with his prototype D-Shape printer. Dini hopes to use the printer to create buildings made of stone and eventually, moon dust.

The printing process starts with a thin layer of sand. The printer then sprays the sand with magnesium-based glue from hundreds of nozzles, which binds the sand into rock. That rock is then built up layer by layer, eventually taking shape of whatever object it is destined to become, be it a curvy sculpture or an entire cathedral. Dini has even been talking with La Scuola Normale Superiore, Alta Space and Norman Foster to design a printer that would work with moon dust, essentially creating a machine that can make an almost-instant moonbase!

New Water-Based Heat Pump is 600 Times Smaller

Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are becoming a mainstream option for those looking to efficiently heat and cool a building. This innovative water-based design showcased by our friends at Treehugger is a promising option for those lucky enough to have a body of water to plug their home into. Rather than laying out a huge mat of loops on the lake bottom, the device condenses the heat exchanger into a relatively small package that lets water flow naturally through the capillary-like tubing. The LIMA 1’s no-muss, no-fuss approach makes ground source or geoexchange heat pumps much more environmentally and economically viable.

The unit takes full advantage of the incredible properties of water– its ability to hold and transfer heat, and the fact that it is readily available in many places. The current method of installing a system is to lace the bottom of a body of water with tubes — not the most elegant or low-impact approach. Servicing can be an issue as well, and installation costs can be staggering.

The one-meter diameter Lima-1 uses a large series of short engineered tubes made from fluoropolymers that excel at heat transfer. The tubes are connected to a series of manifolds that are then connected to an inlet and outlet pipe. Non-toxic antifreeze runs through to a condenser, which efficiently transfers heat from the buildings heat exchanger with the body of water. The entire system has 1-600th the footprint of a typical system.