Allison+Chang


 * -Welcome to Allison's wiki- **



Top Five Sustainability Themes: =1. Clean Water and Sanitation =

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Usable water is an essential and limited resource. Our water usage is becoming an increasingly critical issue, as our population continues to grow exponentially and strains the finite amount of resources available. In addition, bad economics and poor infrastructure contribute to wasteful usage of water, leading to many crises. For example, millions die each year as a result of diseases related to deficient water sanitation and supply. I t is predicted that by 2050 (in around 30 years!), at least 1 in 4 people will be living in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water-- the main resource from which we obtain usable water. Decreased water supply and quality also have large impacts on other areas of sustainability, such as available food, housing, and education resources. Solutions for sustaining our usable water resources must be researched, such as processing other currently unavailable water resources or recycling the usable amounts water available. ===== =2. Zero Hunger =

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This goal has many facets, including achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Food security is defined as the condition in which all people at all times have physical, social, and economic access to a sufficient amount of food that fulfills daily nutrition and dietary needs to support an active and healthy life. Nutrition ties in with food security, as it emphasizes the importance of not only providing proper amounts of food, but also variety to ensure a balanced and healthy diet. Sustainable agriculture provides a solution to the hunger issue that also minimizes its environmental impact, such as decreasing the pollution resulting from production, promoting biodiversity, and maintaining healthy soil to continually harvest crops. =====

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Currently, there are around 815 million hungry with another additional 2 billion predicted by 2050. Populations have decreased their dependence on local resources for food by increasing their consumption of external resources. Our food consumption could be much more sustainable by depending on local food sources, which would provide many benefits such as fresher food and less need for energy usage to transport goods across large distances. ===== =3. Quality Education = =4. Affordable and Clean Energy = =5. Sustainable Cities and Communities =



Wiki 2: Using Biomimetics for Water Purification One of t he UN Goals is to provide clean water and sanitation, which is becoming increasingly difficult as the amount of usable drinking water on earth is limited. This can be seen in the limited water availability demonstration in class a week ago, when the class physically represented the total water on earth and narrowed down the representation to the amount of water usable by humans (~3%). In combination with finite resources, many pollutants have become mixed with the small amount of usable water, rendering it unusable and further decreasing the availability of clean water. This rising issue has been recognized in many studies, as it has been found that 70% of untreated industrial wastes and more than 80% of sewage in developing countries are dumped into usable water sources. Thus, there have been many research projects initiated to try and solve the issue of polluted water resources. One solution that has been discovered was made by Danish company Aquaporin. The group developed a technology that purifies water by mimicking nature (biomimetics). They were able to create a membrane that is embedded with aquaporins, which are proteins that allow for quicker movement of water into or out of a cell. The synthetic membrane relies on osmosis and uses much less energy than other prior technologies. It can be used to efficiently treat wastewater by allowing living things to filter out pollutants and get clean water into cells. One gram of aquaporins can filter 2,700 liters of water per second.

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The video helps give an overall summary and perspective of the development process of the synthetic membrane. A huge improvement the membrane has is its ability to filter water with low levels of energy. Scientists first studied the biological mechanisms of natural membranes, and then worked with inorganic compounds to mimic the properties of the natural membranes. For example, they copied the hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties, and later on added additional intermembrane proteins. Moreover, in addition to copying the mechanisms of a natural membrane, scientists were able to integrate improvements to the synthetic membrane's functions and permeability.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;">Wiki 3: 3D Food Printing <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Similar to lab grown meat, 3D food printers provide an alternative solution to reducing the high amounts of waste that result from food production and help promote healthier lifestyles. For example, because 3D printers follow digital instructions while they print, the amount of nutrients contained in the food that is printed can be tailored to specific groups, such as gender, age, lifestyle, and medical condition. The variety of vitamins and minerals and amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fatty acids could be controlled. One of the main beneficial features of 3D printing food is that it provides an easier way to prepare processed foods compared to traditional home cooking methods. Although the food is not being physically prepared by a person, a decreased dependence on pre-prepared meals that require heavy processing and packaging will lower the amount of resulting waste.

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">While this video is relatively simple, it shows all the different types of food that has been created by the 3D food printer. From pasta to cookies, the printers are able to recreate the shapes of commonly consumed foods, or give them novel, unique textures and forms as well (as seen below). The video also brings up a good example of how the 3D food printer can introduce healthier food choices to the diets of its users. By varying the nutrient content in the solution used to create and print the foods, the ingredients used to make them can be tailored to specifically cater to the consumer's health needs. For example, the video shows the different levels of nutrients required between age, gender, and fitness level that the 3D food printer could accommodate.



<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The 3D food printer relates to our "Meet Your Meat" discussions, as it has been used experimentally to produce meat. This alternative can help decrease the need for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where much of our environmental issues stem from. For example, it has been found that the projected food packaging and processing system will cause a 10-15% increase in nitrogen deposits into coastal water sources. This further contributes to the issue of rising dead zones across the coast. Overall, the printer provides a way to cut down on all the waste that results from packaging and processing our meat and food. <span style="font-family: &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Research has found that food packaging accounts for about 50% of total packaging sales, so by popularizing the use of food printers, the amount of resources used to process and package foods will decrease.

<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Wiki 4: Net Power <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This week, one of our class discussions focused on finite and reusable energy. In general, a non-renewable resource is a source of energy that does not regenerate itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction at the pace humans use it. The three main finite sources we draw from are coal, petroleum, and natural gas. In class and through some of the sustainability projects presented this week, we learned about how much energy we consume in a day, its negative impact on the environment, and also steps we can take to limit our usage of finite resources. Our discussion on energy and resources was summed up by taking the Google Form practice quiz on the different types of renewable and non renewable energy sources. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Net Power specifically focuses on reducing and reusing the amount of carbon dioxide released from using natural gas. This is especially relevant today, as natural gas is predicted to become one of our primary sources of electricity. Because it is cheap and readily available, natural gas currently accounts for more than 30% of US electricity and 22% of world electricity. The main issue with using natural gases for our main source of energy is that while it is cleaner than coal, it still has a huge carbon footprint. Thus, Net Power was created to generate power as cheaply as standard natural gas plants, but also capture and repurpose all the carbon dioxide released to create energy. Net Power is able to do this by collecting the carbon dioxide released from burning the natural gases and putting the carbon dioxide under high pressure and heat. This changes the form of the carbon dioxide to a "working fluid" that is able to drive a special turbine. Thus, most of the carbon dioxide can be continuously recycled.

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This short video does a good job going into a bit more detail on how NetPower uses the carbon dioxide to power the burning of natural gases. It describes the specific machinery involved in the process, and the overall impact and implications of NetPower. Not only is it able to produce low cost electricity, it also does so in a manner that releases little to no carbon emissions.

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