Recycle diapers to create energy, fertilizer and new materials

The "Happy Nappy" program of the French company Suez Environnement, recently launched, aims to make use of the thousands of used diapers that babies generate every year. Thanks to various treatments could be achieved to generate energy, fertilizer for plants and new materials from reused plastic.

Each baby needs about 6,000 diapers in its first 24 months of life, which means every year, in our country, hundreds of thousands of dirty diapers are thrown away. What if we could recycle them? It is precisely what this French company is carrying out through its subsidiary Sita.

The first thing to analyze is the composition of the diaper used. Of the total, most (between 50 and 70 percent) are organic waste, followed by plastics and fibers with between 10 and 20 percent and finally the absorbent polymers, which represent between 5 and 10 percent of the total.

For its recycling the first thing that is done is the crushing to separate the different parts, to later treat them independently.

Once separated each material receives a treatment. The organic waste goes to a purification system and sludge that will produce biogas and fertilizers for future use in agriculture. For its part, plastics would function as the raw material for the manufacture of new compounds.

As explained by Jean-Louis Chaussade, CEO of Suez Environnement, "the creation and positive results of this pilot project perfectly illustrate the synergies that exist between garbage and the water business, and how our technologies and capabilities can lead to creation of a new waste valorization scheme ".

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Plocan, a boost to the Blue Economy

The objective of the future multifunctional ocean complexes will be to promote and optimize the management of maritime space in coherence with the Blue Economy concept promoted by the European Commission.

Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a marine research and technology laboratory funded by the EU, the Spanish Government and the Government of the Canary Islands. Installed 1.5 kilometers from the northeast coast of the island of Gran Canaria, it welcomes teams of scientists working in fields such as biotechnology, renewable energy, and in the study and observation of the ocean.

This initiative contributes to the Blue Economy promoted by the European Commission, which seeks to create employment and wealth in the marine and maritime sectors, in a way that respects the environment. Thus, the research and technologies developed in PLOCAN will eventually reach society in the form of sustainable products and businesses.

One of the new initiatives of PLOCAN is the REDSUB project, an electrical network to support experimentation and testing of new technologies that use marine energy resources to generate electricity and connect technologies for observation at increasing depths. The system consists of predominantly submarine wiring capable of transporting energy to earth up to 15 MW.

TROPOS, the ocean of tomorrow

PLOCAN has led the TROPOS project, co-financed by the European Commission and developed over 36 months in three regions: a tropical one, Taiwan; a subtropical, Canary Islands; and a Mediterranean, Crete.

This initiative has consisted of the design of a multifunctional oceanic complex that integrates the exploitation of oceanic energy resources -especially the wind-, aquaculture, maritime transport related to both sectors and leisure, in three regions.

The TROPOS project was chosen by the European Commission within the framework of The Ocean of Tomorrow program, which proposes "joining research efforts to face the challenges of ocean management" through the development of multifunctional complexes.

TROPOS aims to optimize the use of maritime space, in anticipation of the perspective of global population growth and the current limitation of land space in coastal areas and their subsequent degradation. The program had a financing of 14 million euros, of which 4.9 were for TROPOS.

The objective of these future multifunctional ocean complexes would be to combine different sectors of activity to promote and optimize maritime space management in coherence with the Blue Economy concept promoted by the European Commission.

The complexes would be adapted to deep waters and would allow the exploitation of the oceanic resources and their interrelation with the economy and the environment. TROPOS, promoted by PLOCAN, in addition to energy, aquaculture and transport, introduced leisure as a differentiating element, proposing recreational activities (floating restaurants, sailing, diving ...) and observation of cetaceans and birds.

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Giant solar power plant in Africa could power up Europe

At the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, the efforts to move towards more sustainable energies are also felt, with one of the largest solar plants in the world, that of Noor in Uarzazate.

One of the objectives of this solar power plant is the energy transition, exemplifying the path open to Africa, which places the hope in having a new source of income that drives the development of the most impoverished continent.

This is a very ambitious renewable energy plan, since Morocco is located in a continent that seeks to reduce its energy dependence and at the same time, sees in the exploitation of energy to the developed countries an option that takes off from the Magred (northern region of the continent African) to the Middle East and from there to Sub-Saharan Africa based on this Solar Power Plant.

Morocco hopes that by 2030, half of the country's energy consumption by 52% will come from clean energy.

To achieve these objectives, much depends on the sun, air and water, part of them have already been incorporated thanks to the installation of the Uarzazate thermo solar plant, a desert door that is a cradle of adaptation of energy from the sun, which shines in this place for 330 days a year. Producing for three hours once the sun goes down, with its storage of energy in reserves with molten salts based on sodium and potassium nitrates.

The solar plant will continue to grow once Noor II and Noor III are completed, which are the two phases that are underway with an investment of 1,800 million euros. The authorities estimate that after they finish construction of the plant in 2020 approximately, it will provide up to 2000 megawatts (unit of measurement of electrical energy).

The impulse of the Moroccan government to clean energy is spread throughout Africa, with plants under construction in the Middle East and in South Africa, as well as in Rwanda, Uganda or Ghana; countries that can find in the sun an alternative for the supply, to produce energy for the exterior and, with it, to find a new income channel for the continent.

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Happy Monday with Pictures

Is there any better way to start a week than to show off the pictures I recently received from my friend Andy Padian at the green consulting firm Steven Winter Associates ? I think not.

Last week he sent me a number of cool infrared thermography photos of common electronic objects, showing the heat they generate (and energy they waste) even when they are off. He also sent some interesting photos showing the energy wasted through poorly insulated windows and walls.

The photo above right is of an average electric razor charger, showing the energy wasted even when the razor is not attached. This photo came at a perfect time, as im still struggling to figure out the comparative environmental impacts of shaving with disposable and electric razors.

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