Water is one of the supplies that we can do without in any case. More important is that we have water in a clean condition available. Fraunhofer scientists have developed a method, which allows you to disinfect water in industrial processes using diamond electrodes. In this technology, no additional chemicals are used, and the operation requires little energy and can be carried out in an independent system in place.

How does it work?

For the electrochemical process, the electrodes are provided with a conductive diamond layer.



The material used for this purpose, however, differs greatly from the diamonds that we know as jewelry: It is an artificial, only a few microns thick. A view through the scanning electron microscope at 5000 times magnification shows that the gray layer is composed of many small diamond crystals.

The water comes into contact with the diamond layer, formed under the influence of electric current ozone, an unstable gas, and hydroxyl radicals, which are among the strongest oxidizing agents. For people and animals increased ozone concentration in the air is unhealthy, because ozone irritates the respiratory tract.

In water treatment, the oxidizing effect is used to destroy micro-organisms in an environmentally friendly way, and pollutants. The use of diamond electrodes, solvents, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, bacteria and other microbes are rendered harmless. The method is also suitable for pollutants associated with conventional methods is difficult or impossible to be eliminated. After the complete oxidation of the pollutants remain carbon dioxide and carbonic acid.

Used for operating and industrial water treatment in the beverage industry

Partners and users, for example, brewery and beverage manufacturer of technologies such as the company Esau & Hueber in Schrobenhausen. An example is the chemical-free treatment of industrial water and process water for brewing. The cleaning and rinsing of your brewing equipment used by the ozone water treatment completely free of germs. The internal operation of water supply affects the process as a firewall, which ensures that no microorganisms pass the water input. The residual effect of the ozone keeps the water distribution network is free from contamination.
read more at http://www.fraunhofer.de

Electrical car charger

Global automakers from the United States and Germany will demonstrate fast-charging technology that will enable the recharging of most electrified vehicles with compatible systems in as little as 15-20 minutes.

Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen have agreed to support a harmonized single-port fast charging approach – called DC Fast Charging with a Combined Charging System – for use on electric vehicles in Europe and the United States.

Live charging demonstrations will be conducted during the Electric Vehicle Symposium 26 (EVS26) May 6-9.

The combined charging system integrates one-phase AC-charging, fast three-phase AC-charging, DC-charging at home and ultra-fast DC-charging at public stations into one vehicle inlet.

This will allow customers to charge at most existing charging stations regardless of power source and may speed more affordable adoption of a standardized infrastructure.

The International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has chosen the Combined Charging System as the fast-charging methodology for a standard that incrementally extends the existing Type 1-based AC charging. The standard is to be officially published this summer. ACEA, the European association of vehicle manufacturers has also selected the Combined Charging System as its AC/DC charging interface for all new vehicle types in Europe beginning in 2017.

The charging system design was based on collaborative reviews and analysis of existing charging strategies, the ergonomics of the connector and preferences of U.S. and European customers. The system was developed for all international vehicle markets and creates a uniform standard with identical electrical systems, charge controllers, package dimensions and safety mechanisms.

read full article on http://media.gm.com/

The water challenge

ISO’s solutions for addressing vital global water challenges are the subject of a new brochure, ISO & water. The four-page document provides a concise overview of International Standards available and how they can help.

Although essential for life, water supplies are burdened by drought, water shortages, climate change, contamination and pollution, the requirements of large cities, intensive irrigation and a growing population with higher standards of living. Water challenges cut across boundaries and require a global response.

ISO standards offer harmonized technology, terminology and best practice, so that countries sharing the same

water resources can work together efficiently and effectively. They are powerful tools for sharing proven global solutions with all regions of the world.

The new brochure underlines the benefits of ISO’s consensus-based approach, and outlines ISO’s water solutions for good business practice, management of resources, risk assessment, metrics and infrastructure. It looks at how ISO water standards can facilitate sustainable water management and increase water potential, helping alleviate water scarcity and contributing to achieving the UN’s Millennium Developing Goals.

Of ISO’s more than 19 000 International Standards, over 550 relate specifically to water. They tackle issues like service management of drinking and wastewater systems, water supply during crisis situations, irrigation, quality and conservation (e.g. hydrometry, quality sampling, water footprint) and infrastructure (e.g. pipes, valves, metering).

We wish all of you a merry christmas and a happy new year and hope that we can welcome some of you in June 2012 in Frankfurt!

Future car

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet statesman and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, was among the distinguished guests speaking at a high-level forum of automotive industry leaders organized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on 2 December in 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland, at the invitation of the ISO President for 2011-2012, Dr. Boris Aleshin.

With more than a billion estimated road vehicles in use worldwide, if the automotive sector uses state-of-the-art standards for aspects such as safety, performance, impact on the environment, and requirements for supply chain partners, this can have an enormous impact on all three dimensions of sustainable development – social, environmental and economic.

The ISO President’s Forum provided a unique opportunity for the automotive industry to engage with ISO and

other standards developing organizations, and discuss the needs and priorities for International Standards in the sector in the coming years.



Some 35 automobile industry leaders from companies such as Audi, Daimler, Renault, Volkswagen, and Volvo provided direct input on what standards are needed to meet the challenges of the industry and those of its customers and stakeholders. At least eight standards developing organizations were represented at the Forum.

As the event’s sponsor and host, ISO President Dr. Boris Aleshin highlighted the objectives of the Forum: “Past and current successes should not allow us to fall into the trap of complacency. We can always do better and this is why ISO has invited you here for this rather unique event.”

In his opening remarks, Mr. Gorbachev said that “Leaders in the automotive industry are now demonstrating greater understanding than simply developing the sector in a linear manner, i.e. increasing productivity and developing new markets, that may lead to a dead end.”

Read more text http://www.iso.org

Generating Renewable Oil

San Francisco based Solazyme may have the answer to the future of fuel. Many of the companies working to generate oil from algae or other photosynthetic organisms have huge inputs of water or take up vast tracts of land. As mentioned in a post last month, the University of Texas is placing a large bet on algae, which they are “farming” in large tubes instead of open ponds to reduce land use and water consumption. Other companies have focused on ethanol derived from corn. Solazyme takes a “variety of different feedstocks” such as cellulosic materials, switch grass, wood chips, and sugar cane and feeds it to algae instead of sunlight, which according to co-founder Harrison Dillon is 1,000 times more productive than making oil from algae using sunlight.

See the video below for an overview of the company’s efforts and products.

The company has already worked with United Airlines, which recently flew the first commercial flight in the United

States using the their bio-fuel blend. Solazyme’s “unique technology transforms low-cost plant sugars into . . . high-value renewable oils.” This conversion of “low-cost plant sugars” into oil represents an important component of fuels from plant material. One of the biggest issues with biofuels today derives from the use of food-based plant material to produce oil, thereby creating a conflict between food and fuel. Using “virgin” plant material only heightens the problem. In addition, producing plants for the sole purpose of generating fuel drives up the price of food by reducing the amount of food grown.

According to their website, “Solazyme oils address many of the challenges associated with traditional oils, such as constrained supplies, volatile pricing, and potentially negative and irreversible environmental effects. The ‘drop-in’ nature of our tailored oils enables compatibility with existing production, refining, and distribution infrastructure in each of our target markets.” This second point is vital for the seamless integration of biofuels into the existing oil infrastructure. Many of the feedstocks are grown on land that would not produce viable agriculture.

Read more text http://www.greenconduct.com

Check this video.

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The Business Complexity Accelerator at Toyota

There was an interesting article in the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter today. Wharton management professor John Paul MacDuffie interviewed Toyota expert, author and Tokyo University Professor Takahiro Fujimoto. The piece is called Under the Hood of Toyota’s Recall: ‘A Tremendous Expansion of Complexity’ and raises the by now familiar questions of complexity of modern automobile systems design, attitudes at Toyota towards its recent quality problems, and what this means for both Toyota and its competitors. To sum up the article with an automotive metaphor, Toyota needs to take its foot off of the business complexity accelerator.

Fujimoto said, “I was surprised to see that Toyota was the first to be caught in this trap of what we may call

complexity problems.” What has puzzled Toyota watchers is how Toyota, proven to be so great at solving problems for so many years, seems to have stumbled in a big way during this recent acceleration-related recall. Why?

Toyota failed to see this problem in the right way, at least in the beginning.

Failing to grasp a problem clearly, quantitatively and without prejudice is the first step in problem solving. Was this a case that the problem solving approach was flawed, or was it that the problem solving process is still sound but that Toyota did not follow their own process?

The danger is that people tend to connect the two problems. “This happened and that happened, so there must be causal relations between the two.” But this is not the case. There appears to be no connections between the design problems and the Toyota production system or Toyota Way.

He clearly says that the recent quality issue at Toyota is not connected to their way of working within the production operations, i.e. the Toyota Production System or even more broadly their philosophy, the Toyota Way. He suggests that that the complexity of new systems within the design simply got out of hand, and when they did, Toyota was unable to respond properly. While the processes within TPS are sound, the mindsets and behaviors of people may have shifted in an unhealthy way towards overconfidence, even arrogance. Fujimoto said:

Read more text http://www.gembapantarei.com

Records facilitate transparency standard

In the wake of recent failures in corporate governance, two new ISO standards will help organizations to disclose corporate information quickly and effectively. Increased pressure by industry regulators obliges companies to provide such information because irregularities in financial management, ethical dealings, disclosure, and transparency of decisions have become common.

ISO 30300:2011, Information and documentation – Management systems for records – Fundamentals and vocabulary, and ISO 30301:2011, Information and documentation – Management systems for records – Requirements, distil the expertise of experts drawn from 27 countries on five continents.

These standards have been developed to be compatible with and complementary to other management system standards (MSSs) developed by ISO, such as ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management), and ISO/IEC 27001 (information security management).

ISO 30300 is the umbrella standard which includes the fundamentals and vocabulary common to the whole series, while ISO 30301 specifies requirements for an MSR (management system for records). Further standards in the ISO 30300 series are under development.

Judith Ellis and Carlota Bustelo, leaders of the working groups that developed the standards, underline that, “The ISO 30300 series offers the methodology for a systematic approach to the creation and management of records, aligned with organizational objectives and strategies. Managing records using an MSS supports cost-effective operational processes, such as storage, information retrieval, information re-use, litigation and due diligence.”

Read more text http://www.iso.org

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of people.

One who practices engineering is called an engineer, and those licensed to do so may have more formal designations such as Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, Ingenieur or European Engineer. The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of more specialized subdisciplines, each with a more specific emphasis on certain fields of application and particular areas of technology.

The American Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET)[1] has defined “engineering” as:

The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.

Aimed at high school students considering engineering as a career, this video by the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences describes the unique features of engineering thinking and problem solving.