Starting a Vacuum Truck Business

Vacuum trucks are used to dispose of various waste materials, such as waste water, septic tank fluids, sewage water, etc. This sector is booming at the moment and the demand is very high. And you can start with only one or two vacuum trucks and scale up once you build a consumer base.

Companies like Vacuum Express have a wide selection of pre-built and custom vacuum trucks for all types of budgets. Once you have a truck, you can choose to serve the emergency response sector, deal with hazardous waste removal, oil skimming, etc. This is a great business sector for anyone who wants to be able to start small and tap into an evergreen market with tons of possibilities.

Green Finance

If you have enough starting capital, you could also consider entering the green financing network. Green finance focuses on financing projects that have a verifiable positive effect on the environment like green energy, sustainable agriculture, environmental products, water management, etc. Climate finance in particular finances projects that aim at reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change.

However, green finance, unlike conventional finance, is more preoccupied with social profitability than monetary profit. So, your goal should be humanitarian first and foremost. However, green projects can still provide a good return on investment and are a great way to invest in the green sector.

Green Consulting

The green consulting sector is bigger than ever, and many organizations are trying to make their businesses greener, but don’t know how. Green consultants are called upon to help organizations improve their processes and internal practices to make them more eco-friendly.

Green consultants help businesses train their employees by instilling sound environmental management practices, helping with media and PR efforts, planning and permissions for environmental projects, and conducting compliance audits among other things.

Eco-Cleaning

The demand for traditional cleaning services is very high, but there is a growing number of clients who are more and more conscious of what goes into cleaning materials and will be ready to pay a premium for green cleaning products. They will also favor companies who advertise themselves as being green as well. By using organic materials and branding yourself as an eco-friendly business, you’ll be able to corner this market and separate yourself from other cleaning services.

Starting an eco-friendly business is a great way to make a positive impact while tapping into one of the most vibrant sectors you can find. All these businesses address real world demands and problems and are set to be profitable for years to come.

The post Four Eco-Friendly Business Ideas appeared first on TurbineGenerator.

Electrical energy supply and demand should be in constant balance.  And since energy demand consistently changes, for example during the changing of seasons or the time of day, the energy supply needs to shift levels to remain in harmony with demand.  When supply and demand fall out of sync, extra costs accrue, energy is wasted, and the every day luxuries of life are threatened.

Energy supply systems that use a renewable energy source — wind, solar, hydro — are always at odds with nature.  If the wind is not blowing strong enough, if it is cloudy or nighttime, or if a drought is inflicted upon a once rainy region, then the wind turbines, solar energy systems, and hydro turbine generators of these areas will probably not be able to provide ample electrical supply.

An intermittent energy source is an energy source that is unable to produce a constant supply of energy due to uncontrollable outside forces.  Unfortunately, humans have little control over the wind speed, sunlight supply, or the natural water cycle of the Earth.  So, renewable energy systems must usually be backed up by an electric grid that is supplied by coal or nuclear power plants.  But, coal and nuclear power plants produce energy at nearly constant rates, which makes them slow to change to the constant shifts in energy demand created by the intermittency of nearby renewable energy sources.  This causes problems to the balancing of supply and demand.

The problem though, is not that nearby homes of an established region will immediately go without power, because power grid systems have very complex electrical supply networks that allow electricity to be aggregately sent to specific areas of a grid from many sources.  The problem is that it is difficult to integrate the elastic electrical supply of renewable energy systems into the rest of the power grid — which runs a more slowly changing and consistent supply — without wasting money or energy.

How a Liquid Metal Battery can Solve the Intermittency Problem

A group of MIT students, researchers, and professors, have developed and are attempting to commercialize what is called a Liquid Metal Battery.  The goal of the battery is to create a sort of “middle ground” of energy consumption and energy storage that can link renewable energy systems as a more constant flow of electrical supply to the regular power grid.

The firm, Liquid Metal Battery Corporation, received their initial investment from Bill Gates and French energy giant Total S.A.

The battery, in order to remain cost-sensitive, is made up of earth-abundant elements.  MIT professor and the founder and chief scientist of LMBC Donald Sadoway explained, “If you want to make a valuable product dirt-cheap, then you need to make it out of dirt.”

The battery is made up of three layers: the top layer is magnesium(Mg) a light liquid metal, the middle layer is molten salt(Na), and the bottom layer is antimony(Sb) a dense liquid metal.  To produce current, magnesium loses two electrons to become magnesium ion(Mg2+), which then migrates across the electrolyte, accepts two electrons from the antimony, and then mixes with it to form an alloy. The battery is then placed in between a renewable energy source and the power grid, and acts as a storage unit for the electricity created from renewable energy.

The liquid metal battery works well in theory, but still needs a lot of research and development before it can become readily commercialized and affordable.  The battery is a huge step towards facing the problems of intermittency with renewable energy systems.  A commercialized liquid metal battery would make it much easier to integrate renewable energy systems into the ever-changing supply and demand of the normal power grid.

The post Liquid Metal Battery – Intermittent Energy appeared first on TurbineGenerator.

Wind, water, earth, fire, and heart.  Each extremely powerful forces in their own right, but when combined, virtually unstoppable.

Imagine now, for a moment, that this brilliant 1990’s cartoon was not the fictional creation of Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle, but was real, rings and all…

Let’s start by looking at the origin of each Planeteer.

Gaia, the spirit and protector of the earth, chose to give a ring to each Planeteer strictly based on their abilities, kindness, and willingness to save the earth.  Gaia is portrayed as an extremely wise goddess type figure, so we will assume she chose the best five people in the world to have rings.

Five rings, five special young men and women:

1. Kwame – The power of Earth – From Ghana, Africa
2. Gi – The power of Water – From Thailand
3. Linka – The power of Wind – From Soviet Union (now Russia)
4. Wheeler – The power of Fire – From Brooklyn, United States
5. Ma-Ti – The power of Heart – From Brazil

Each Planeteer is from a different part of the world, with only Wheeler being from a specific city, New York City.  Kwame grew up in a small, rural farming village in Ghana.  Linka is from Eastern Europe, but most people believe that she was originally from what used to be the Soviet Union.  Gi is from somewhere in Thailand, and Ma-Ti is from somewhere in Brazil.

How they could each benefit the world of renewable energy:

Let’s assume that each Planeteer only spends a small portion of their time fighting Eco-Villains – at least 30 minutes a week.  If Gaia had so wisely chosen them for their abilities and willingness to save the earth, I think it is safe to assume that they would spend a lot of their free time finding other useful ways to help the planet besides fighting off Eco-Villains.

Below is a breakdown of each Planeteer and what they could theoretically do with their free-time to help save the planet:

He has the power to move huge pieces of earth, create earthquakes, large holes, and has top caliber knowledge on growing and planting things from his time spent growing up in a small African Village. So, Kwame could easily use his powers and knowledge to create perfect locations for extracting geothermal energy, or grow plants in areas where other people struggle to get results from the land, which could then be used to create biofuels.  Kwame could also aid in moving and morphing large pieces of the earth for mining purposes.  His powers could replace large machines needed for digging that are dangerous and emit large amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere.

Kwame would probably be tempted to earn huge sums of money helping to mine for the diamond industry in Africa or perhaps the gold industry in his home country of Ghana.  The United States Government would probably try to lure Kwame into working in the United States.  He could help companies locate oil reserves deep in the Earth, or maybe build ski resorts in the flat plain areas of the US.  Kwame would have no problem finding ways to make huge sums of money with his powers.

Theoretically, with her power of water, Gi could do a number of things.  She could bring water to areas of the world that need it most for farming, and could help grow sugarcane for biofuel production in areas that were once too dry.  Gi could also find ways to harvest water for hydro-turbine generators. She could create huge reservoirs of water that could generate electricity in a hydroelectric dam, and they could be constructed in areas that harbor little wildlife in order avoid causing danger to existing ecosystems.  She could also create flowing water in dried up rivers and streams that could use zero-head turbine generators to create clean electricity.

For fun, or maybe for money from tourism, Gi could find beautiful and calm remote lakes in the world and make huge waves for people to come and surf.

The post Captain Planet – Renewable Energy appeared first on TurbineGenerator.