Tag Archives: Clean Technology

The COCONUT Tree – a real Goldmine

Coconut trees dot across the entire coastal regions of the tropics except where the climate is dry (mainly in desert type climatic regions)

Click on the Photo to get enlarged viewBeautiful Coconut Trees

Beautiful Coconut Trees

An average Coconut tree has a life of about 100 years. But, most trees may become less productive after 60 years.

India has a sea coast line of over 6,500 Km and Coconut trees dot almost the entire stretch (about 6,000 Km). These trees are grown in the interior regions too (the Photo illustration above is one such interior region in the southern Karnataka State). The estimated number of trees in India is 1,200 million (almost one tree per individual in India!). Were we to consider the life of an average tree at 60 yrs, we could have a total of 30,000,000 trees for use annually. These could be converted into Engineered Composites ranging from small buttons to structural engineering products and sophisticated Auto components – resulting in wood substitutes, metal substitutes that results in conservation and less environmental damages. India could, thus, manufacture not less than 30,000,000 T of Coconut tree materials based engineered composites. If all of these were to replace wood used in engineering, homes, furniture etc … no tree would have to be cut in India for all wood based engineered products!

Coconut Fiber Converted Products

Coconut Fiber Converted Products

Click on the Photo to get enlarged viewProduction sequence

Please visit: http://www.cleantech.org/magazine/read/total-wood-substitute-using-vegetation-wastes_305.html

and http://tvdpworks.wordpress.com/

Updated on Oct 11, 2014

Environmentally Neutral Engineering Composites for Boats and Aircrafts

TRADITIONAL ENGINEERING MATERIALS

Steel, Aluminum, Brass, Bronzes, Plastics, Polymer Composites and Wood are the most used traditional engineering materials. These have certain properties as follows: (CLICK on the TABLE to ENLARGE have a better View)

Certain Traditional Engineering Materials properties

Certain Derived Properties of Composites in Fibers, Compared with Steel

Fiber (40% uni-directional) Tensile Strength Sp.wt Sp. Tensile Strength Tensile Modulus Eq Wt Section Eq. Wt Rigidity Modulus Cost Factor
(MPa) (kg/m3) (m) (GPa) (cm) Carbon Steel = 1 cm (Kg-m2) (Rs/ Kg)
Bamboo 293 600 48833 18.32 13.08 3416 250
Bamboo-Glass 350 703 49786 18.23 11.16 2111 255
Hybrid Bamboo1 440 688 63953 22.85 11.4 2282 740
Hybrid Bamboo2 438.2 695 63050 27.09 11.29 3248 990
E-Glass 816.8 1474 55413 18.91 5.32 237.27 270
S-Glass 1104 1455 75876 23.16 5.39 302.22 510
Carbon Fiber 1222 1336 91467 74.95 5.87 1263 3210
Kevlar 49 1298 1243 104424 45.27 6.31 947.8 2210
Boron 946.5 1467 64519 92.94 5.35 1186 3810
High tensile Steel 4000 7900 50632 210 0.99 16.98 250
Low Carbon steel 400 7850 5095 210 1 17.5 60

Comparative Design Advantage of Hybrid Bamboo Composites:

In order that we are able to arrive at “optimum” engineered material system for a particular design need, we shall compare the “Rigidity factor” based on Low Carbon Steel (which is the standard structural engineering material)

The average thickness of Steel sheet material needed for the hull of a small 20 ft Dinghy that needs to be “seaworthy’ is 6 mm. The various thickness factors for the Composites (based on equivalent Rigidity factor) are presented below:

Fiber (40% uni-directional) Tensile Strength Sp.wt Sp. Tensile Strength Engineered Section Wt per Sq m Rigidity Modulus Fabrication Cost Factor
(MPa) (kg/m3) (m) (cm) Kg (Kg-m2) (Rs/ Sq m)
Low Carbon steel 400 7850 5095 0.6 47 3.78 5640
Bamboo (40%) 293 600 48833 1.36 8.16 3.84 3060
Bamboo-Glass 350 703 49786 1.36 9.56 3.82 3657
Hybrid Bamboo1 440 688 63953 1.26 8.67 3.8 7700
Hybrid Bamboo2 438.2 695 63050 1.2 8.34 3.9 9908
Kevlar 49 1298 1243 104424 1.01 13.11 3.88 33319

 It is noted that we could engineer superior structures using both 40% bamboo composite and bamboo-glass composites. The cost factors would be lesser than that of Low carbon steel structure, even at 50% excess thickness levels in the Bamboo composite structures. That would mean far superior Strength-Rigidity factors in the resultant engineered systems. See the Table below:

Fiber (40% uni-directional) Tensile Strength Sp.wt Sp. Tensile Strength Engineered Section Wt per Sq m Rigidity Modulus Fabrication Cost Factor
(MPa) (kg/m3) (m) (cm) Kg (Kg-m2) (Rs/ Sq m)
Low Carbon steel 400 7850 5095 0.6 47 3.78 5640
Bamboo (40%) 293 600 48833 2.04 12.24 12.96 4590
Bamboo-Glass 350 703 49786 2.04 14.34 12.89 5485

It is further noted that even at double the “minimum thickness” for “steel equivalent” Rigidity factor, the weight factor is only about one-fourth of steel … allowing us to have greater Strength-Rigidity-Economics

For more details on the subject of STRENGTH, RIGIDITY and related Factors, please visit the blog:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/752322/Re-Optimized-Engineering-Materials-Through-Cleantech

Bamboo-Composite Molded Boat/ Dinghy (Click to Enlarge)

Please see the following blogs on this subject for more details:

1. http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/750225/Re-Optimized-Engineering-Materials-Through-Cleantech

2. http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/754912/Re-Optimized-Engineering-Materials-Through-Cleantech

We are now looking at the possibility of Designing and constructing a Lightweight AIRCRAFT (Two-Seater) using Hybrid Bamboo Composites. Please see here:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/756431/Re-Optimized-Engineering-Materials-Through-Cleantech

Main Structure Syatems in a Lightweight Aircraft

ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON FARMING

Please also visit: Real Value Additions using Agrowastes and AGROBIOGENICS

It is estimated that an average farmland in India would support a total plants/ vegetation/ shrubs/ grasses growth of not less than 50 Tons of biomass. This is without any agricultural operations being carried on! It is also noted that each ton of “green weight” biomass could be anaerobically converted into the following:

1. Methane gas …………………………….. 75 Kg

2. Carbon Di Oxide ………………………. 130 Kg

3. Biofertilizer …………………………….. 63 Kg

4. H2S + Amines ………………………….. 2 Kg

5. Insitu Water …………………………….. 730 Kg

The Photo illustration shows “Natural Sustainable growth” in various farmlands in southern India. It is possible for every farmer to take advantage of AGRO-BIOGENICS TECHNOLOGIES and each ha of any farmland could GENERATE NOT LESS THAN Rs.300,000 (US $6667 at Jan 2011 values) WORTH PRODUCTS/ VALUE ADDITIONS per annum. This is over and above whatever is being generated now using current practices

For more details:

pvhramani@yahoo.com

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Minty-Fresh™.

Links for Interaction: https://zerowastezerocarbon.wordpress.com/links-for-interaction/

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2010. That’s about 3 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 3 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 4 posts. There were 32 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 6mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was December 1st with 22 views. The most popular post that day was ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON BUSINESS – Banana-Plantation_example .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mail.yahoo.com, agro-biogenics.com, WordPress Dashboard, punecleantech.com, and mail.live.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for banana plantation, zero waste, banana plantations, crockery, and banana waste.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON BUSINESS – Banana-Plantation_example November 2009
5 comments

2

Contact Us September 2010
1 comment

3

Closed-Loop Zero-Waste Zero-Carbon Processes December 2009
1 comment

4

Looking for Entrepreneurs as Promoter-Directors July 2010
2 comments

5

Materials Efficiency = Business Efficiency November 2009

REAL VALUE ADDITIONS IN ZW-ZC-BM

Please also read: https://zerowastezerocarbon.wordpress.com/closed-loop-zero-waste-zero-carbon-processes/

Also visit: AGROBIOGENICS

THE NEXT BIG-THING (TNBT) is not the sophisticated explorations and voyages to Pluto or the Stars nor the specialty robotic gadgets or genetically modified cells in micro-bio-technology; but it would be the New Business Paradigm that simultaneously answers GLOBAL WARMING and POVERTY (GWP). The “on-the-ground” development would be brought about through sustainable development and utilization of available Renewable Resources (RR). This results in the said new business paradigm: ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON BUSINESS-MODEL (ZW-ZC-BM). The practical conversions are based on processing available RR, in the forms of Vegetation/animal/human resources + sunlight/rain/air.

An example of a vegetation specie is Banana. We would be converting banana plant wastes into products such as: Energy, Bio-petrochemicals, Molded Crockery, Molded Doors/ Wood substitute and many other utilitarian products. One of the highest value added products would be Molded Household Crockery

A Kg of banana plant fiber could be converted into 2.2 Kg of Molded Crockery (a few other ingredients would also be added in the molding composite). In value terms, $0.17 worth banana fiber would become 2.2 Kg crockery, worth $23.4 (these are approximate computations) – a value addition of 137.6 (13, 760%). Another product is wood substitute board (named: Molded Strand Board, MSB). In this case, each Kg of the fiber system would be converted into 4 Kg of MSB. The unit value of a Kg in MSB is estimated @ $1.27 (about 750% of the base value of banana plant wastes).

The implications of such value-additions are many. One, the resultant Business-Model is a “high-return” proposition for any investor; Two, the potential to convert such RR into huge businesses is evident; Three, the opportunities for local village (farmland) development are immense. The value of Molded Crockery potential in 1000 ha banana plantation is a whopping $234, 000, 000 (total productions = 22, 000 tons). Even if only half of these estimates were to be practically achieved, that would still be BIG Business!

 

An “OPEN DEAL” is presented here: http://www.ongreen.com/deal-marketplace/zero-waste-zero-carbon-business-model-energy-engineering-materials-bio-petrochemica

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Please note certain Facts on How 1 Kg Banana Stem Waste would become 2.2 Kg CROCKERY:

1. One “Full Size” South Indian Banana Stem/ Tree has about 50 Kg (green weight) average
2. Each such average banana tree would result in: 5 Kg Fibers (dry) + 2.5 Kg Organic Solids (dry) and 42.5 Kg water (about 28.5 Kg are recoverable)
3. The 50 Kg size Banana stem/ tree is available at site for US $0.833. This would mean that a Kg of the dry fibers are worth $0.166 (assuming there is no value for either the other Organic solids and water)
4. Each Kg of Molded Crockery would be a composite of the following: Banana Fiber = 0.454 Kg + Specialty Polymer = 0.454 + Inorganic Inert materials/ non-toxic Industrial Wastes = 0.092 Kg (Thus, every Kg of dry fiber would become 2.2 Kg of Crockery!)
5. We do not sell Crockery by weight! Instead, these are put inside excellent Packaging systems, with “Usage & care” pamphlet inside and also a pamphlet that would help the home maker know something about Cookery. All in all, these are sold as Dinner Sets, Tea/ Coffee Sets and the like. One such Set would have 4 Full Plates, 4 half Plates 4 Cups and 4 Saucers (weighing about 2.05 Kg, net), Sold to the Market @ $23.49

For answers against any doubts please contact on the mail ID below:

pvhramani@yahoo.com …    or   hariharanpv@agrobiogenicscleantech.com

Last updated on April 23, 2014

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Looking for Entrepreneurs as Promoter-Directors

AGRO-BIOGENICS (Clean-tech) Private Limited is a newly formed company, with the following Business Objectives:

  1. To carry on all of the businesses of utilizing and recycling all available renewable resources and non-toxic wastes, resulting in non-fossil energy, engineering materials, processed foods, bio-petrochemicals, bio-fertilizer, and bio-water by using Zero-waste Zero-Carbon Business-Model, through Agro-Polymer Industry Complex Sustainability Engineered Projects (APIX-SEP), independently and through joint ventures, in India and elsewhere in the world.
  2. To define, devise, design, develop and commercialize, through industrial set up, Research and Development, industrial training or otherwise, an entirely new science and technology involved in conversions of Renewable Resources (plants, vegetation matter, animal matter, sunlight, rain and air) that would create self sustainability in the availability and general needs of the society, without excessively relying on fossil based or non-renewable resources; and to propagate these technologies within India and world wide, through Businesses or otherwise

More details on Agro-Polymer Industry Complex-Sustainability Engineered Projects (APIX-SEP) could be noted here:

  1. ABC’s of AGRO-BIOGENICS
  2. BIO-PETROCHEMICALS
  3. http://sustainabilityengineering.wordpress.com/tag/apix-sep/
  4. https://zerowastezerocarbon.wordpress.com/

A Brief project report could be downloaded here:

Executive Summary ZW-ZC-BM_IMPORTANT EXTRACTS

The promoters of AGRO-BIOGENICS are looking for positive entrepreneurs with Vision to be inducted as PROMOTER DIRECTORS. Venture benefits to an extent of Thrice the initial investment returns in Five years are possible

Business start-up .. SECTOR: Energy/ Wastes Recycling … INVESTMENT: $ 2, 125, 610 … Company being Registered; Plan Year = 2010; SALES FORECAST: Yr 1 = $1.35 M; Yr 2 = $8.75 M; Yr 3 = $13.5 M; Yr 4 + $28.5 M PROFITS FORECAST: Yr 1 = 0; Yr 2 = $1.3 M; Yr 3 = $2.3 M; Yr 4 = $5.08 M Number of Employees: Yr 2010 = 15; Yr 2011 = 150; Yr 2012 = 170 FIXED CAPITAL: … $1, 558, 280; WORKING CAPITAL: … $567, 330 (Total = $2, 125, 610)

BASIC BUSINESS: 200,000 banana stems converted: 550 KW Power; 110T Banana Fiber Molded Crockery; 7250T Composite Engineering Product (Molded Doors); 335T Biofertilizer; 6.4T Green Sulfur. All water, organics and CO2 recycled; true Green Zero-Waste Zero-Carbon Business. Entire Energy needs to be generated insitu, using agrowastes (through Anaerobic Conversions); All water needs would be through Rainwater harvest + recycling all the recoverable water from agrowastes and organic wastes. ROI = 300%; break-even in second year ; repayment in 4 years; total dividends to shareholders 1000% in 3rd yr.

More details could be personally obtained from HARIHARAN PV (Chief Promoter and Mentor): pvhramani@yahoo.com

The Full long term business potentials through APIX-SEP could be noted in the following general illustration

Closed-Loop Zero-Waste Zero-Carbon Business-model (APIX-SEP)

Closed-Loop Zero-Waste Zero-Carbon Business-model (APIX-SEP)

Click on the illustration to see enlarged image

Updated on March 12, 2013

ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON BUSINESS – Banana-Plantation_example

Showcasing ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON BUSINESS-MODEL (ZW-ZC-BM) through Banana Plantation wastes conversions:

We look at a project in which 200, 000 wasted banana stems (leaves and roots included) are converted into the following:

  1. Power (@ 24 x 300) ……………………………….. 550 KW
  2. Banana Fiber Substituted Molded Crockery ……. 110 T
  3. Molded Strand Boards (Wood substitute) ………. 7250 T
  4. Biofertilizer (solids) ………………………………….. 335 T
  5. GREEN” sulfur ………………………………………. 6.44 T
  6. Bio-Water …………………………………………….. 12, 176, 570 L
  7. TOTAL VALUES ………………… $13.5 million (All Energy used insitu)

THIS IS A GREEN VENTURE

This Project aims at conversion/ recycling of locally available Renewable Resources into Energy, Engineered Materials, Biofertilizer and Non-fossil based Chemicals. The ultimate objective is to reduce the gap between the “rich” and “poor”, through village development … This Pilot project would offer full time jobs to not less than 150 local village people, thereby offset migration to the cities

ISSUES INVOLVED/ ADDRESSED

This is the Pilot plant that would show-case a new Socio-Techno-Commercial-Environmental business theme, having high growth potentials and high profitability. Locally available Renewable Resources (RR) and organic/ food wastes would be the starting materials, to be converted into non-conventional energy, engineering materials, alternate petrochemicals and biofertilizer. Issues addressed through this project are:

  1. Global Warming is addressed through Clean-Tech products/ Energy, using Renewable Resources (RR)

  2. Poverty is addressed through wealth creation utilizing local RR, in village areas

  3. Need of Clean Electricity is addressed through utilization of RR (mainly organic matter and wastes)

  4. Need of substitutes for wood and fossil based engineering materials is addressed, through Composites

  5. CO2-sequestered into Carbon Sink Engineered Products (CSEP), replaces regular building materials

  6. Total recycling of non-toxic organic matter provides Biofertilizer and recyclable Bio-water

  7. The UN MDG’s are addressed through wealth creation in rural areas, without environmental degradation

OUR TEAM

PROMOTER Company: AGRO-BIOGENICS (Clean-Tech) Private Limited, Bangalore, India


1. Chief Mentor & Promoter: Hariharan PV (http://www.linkedin.com/in/hariharanpv)

2. Think-Tank Chair: Charles H. Tankersley (http://chtank.org)

3. Michael Sahilu: Associate: Ethiopia (mykeybizu2000@yahoo.com)

4.Mwaniki Gachuba III: Associate: Scotland (& Kenya) … (gachubah@yahoo.com)

5.Think-Tank Group of AGRO-BIOGENICS: https://zerowastezerocarbon.wordpress.com/contact-us/

Also visit: Sustainability Engineering and http://freeenergytoworld.wordpress.com/

ZERO-WASTE ZERO-CARBON BUSINESS in BANANA PLANTATION

Click on the illustrations to enlarge… Here are a few Value-added products:

 

High Value Products using Vegetation Wastes such as Banana Stems etc

Please visit

http://agrobiogenicscleantechpvtltd.com/abcs-of-agro-biogenics/

Last updated: June 12, 2014