Engineering news

Engineering

Wastewater to energy: New treatment process can improve biorefinery sustainability

Wastewater from biorefineries that convert plants into fuel is full of organic materials that cannot be efficiently treated with conventional wastewater systems, making it costly and energy-intensive to manage.

Engineering

Novel process extracts rare earth elements from waste

Rare earth elements (REE), a group of 17 metallic elements, are in nearly every piece of technology, including cell phones, televisions, computers and almost every part of a vehicle. The demand for these elements increases ...

Engineering

Five Indigenous engineering feats you should know about

For many millennia, Indigenous Australians have engineered the landscape using sophisticated technological and philosophical knowledge systems in a deliberate response to changing social and environmental circumstances.

Engineering

Novel heat-transfer medium and air wall increase efficiency of solar thermal tower power plants

The higher the receiver temperature, the more efficiently a solar thermal power plant will operate. Convective thermal losses also have an important effect on yield. The HelioGLOW collaborative project by Fraunhofer Institute ...

Robotics

Detection of methanol using a soft photonic crystal robot

Robots are currently employed in industrial sites and fields, including disaster rescue, medicine, security, and national defense. Conventional metal-based robots exert strong operating power due to rigid body construction ...

Engineering

What really matters in multi-story building design?

The impact of multi-story building design considerations on embodied emissions, cost, and operational energy has been revealed for the first time. Using a model, researchers estimate that 28% to 44% of yearly heating and ...

Engineering

Mechanical engineers explore kitchen uses for 3D printing

Cooking devices that incorporate three-dimensional (3D) printers, lasers, or other software-driven processes may soon replace conventional cooking appliances such as ovens, stovetops, and microwaves. But will people want ...

Engineering

3D-printed revolving devices can sense how they are moving

Integrating sensors into rotational mechanisms could make it possible for engineers to build smart hinges that know when a door has been opened, or gears inside a motor that tell a mechanic how fast they are rotating. MIT ...

Robotics

Resilient bug-sized robots keep flying even after wing damage

Bumblebees are clumsy fliers. It is estimated that a foraging bee bumps into a flower about once per second, which damages its wings over time. Yet despite having many tiny rips or holes in their wings, bumblebees can still ...

Software

First open-source tool to let planners map pedestrian networks

It's easier than ever to view maps of any place you'd like to go—by car, that is. By foot is another matter. Most cities and towns in the U.S. do not have sidewalk maps, and pedestrians are usually left to fend for themselves: ...

Engineering

Study seeks to revolutionize wind turbine design

A study carried out by researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), belonging to the Institute of Science and Technology of Concrete (ICITECH), in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology in ...

Engineering

The benefits of floatovoltaics: Putting solar panels on reservoirs

An international team of environmental scientists is touting the benefits of solar panels on floating platforms atop reservoirs and other bodies of water. In their paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the ...