Smart meter

Our electrical devices may be 21st century, but
the electrical grid we plug them into is strictly
20th. The grid is inefficient and prone to
breakdowns — as anyone who remembers the
great East Coast blackout of 2003 would
know. Improving the grid is going to be a vital
part of helping clean energy scale up: better
transmission lines are needed to carry wind-
generated electricity from the middle of the
U.S. to the more heavily populated coasts, for
example, while a more flexible grid can better
handle the intermittency of renewable power sources.
But the first installment on a smarter gird will
be smarter meters. Right now the electric
meter in your home tells you — and the
electric company — only the most basic
information. The majority of utilities won't
even know that homes have lost power in a
blackout until enough annoyed customers call
them. But smart meters connected to a
network can relay that sort of information
instantly, giving utilities and customers alike a
real-time picture of how much power is being
used at any given moment. And as new
appliances are networked into smart meters,
we'll be able to use them much more
efficiently — programming our washing
machines to run only during times of low
power demand, say. By smoothing out the
electricity demand curves, smart meters can
help utilities get more out of the power plants
they already have — and avoid building more.

Green Concrete

Making cement for concrete is energy-
intensive. Extremely energy-intensive. Here's
how it works: you heat pulverized limestone
clay — which is heavy in carbon — along with
sand to 1,450°C (2,600°F), usually with a
fossil fuel like coal or natural gas.
Unsurprisingly, that process generates a lot of
carbon dioxide: manufacturing one metric ton
of cement releases 650 to 920 kilograms of
CO2. The nearly 3 billion metric tons of
cement that were produced worldwide last
year accounted for about 5% of all CO2
emissions.
The good news is that there are enormous
carbon savings that could be realized by
making cement production more energy
efficient. For example, the company Hycrete
had reformulated the products used to
waterproof concrete in a way that allows for
recycling in the future, reducing the lifetime
energy footprint of a building. The London-
based startup Novacem is going further,
working on a new cement production method
that would actually absorb more CO2 than it
releases, by substituting cabon-rich limestone
with magnesium silicates that contain no
stored carbon. As the cement hardens, CO2 in
the air actually reacts to make solid
carbonates that strengthen the cement while
holding onto the gas. Novacem can't yet use
its process on a commercial scale, but if it
can, concrete could become carbon negative.

E waste

High-tech may have a clean image — all
smooth-edged iPhones and liquid crystal
displays — but the elements that go into
mobile phones, computers and TVs can be
polluting to the environment and dangerous to
human health if incorrectly disposed of. And
that's exactly what happens in parts of the
developing world, where the poor take apart
your phone with little protection, exposing
themselves to mercury, lead, cadmium and
other dangerous metals so that they can get
to the gold, copper and other valuable
materials within. So-called e-waste is the
fastest growing part of the solid waste stream,
and some 20 to 50 million metric tons of it
are thrown out every year.
But there are ways to recycle e-waste,
reducing the need to mine more of the metals
that go into high-tech items, and preventing
the environmental consequences of poorly
processed electronics. CloudBlue, based in
New Jersey, helps tech companies take care of
their e-waste, arranging for direct pickup and
processing, ensuring that valuable metals can
be reused and recycled for future electronics.
For customers like banks that have to worry
about sensitive data that might be encoded on
old computers, CloudBlue can also process
the waste onsite. With all this, the company
can ensure that no e-waste will ever end up in
a landfill — or worse, poisoning a child in
Africa or China.

IGEM2014

IGEM2014
Themed “Creating Green Wealth”, the 5th
International Greentech & Eco Products
Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM2014)
aims to help push the rapid adoption of green
technology which is the emerging driver to
deliver a double impact of sustainable
economic growth as well as to address the
environmental and energy security issues.
Having firmly established its foothold as the
region’s largest green exhibition, IGEM2014
will continue its pursuit to gather like-minded
industry players and professionals to explore
and seize the opportunities from the exciting
and emerging green market in the country and
the region. Along with ASEAN / International
Pavilions, it provides an essential platform to
launch, feature and showcase innovative green
technologies, eco-products and services. It is
indeed a must-attend event for green product
buyers and sellers to interact, transact and
forge new partnerships and cross border
collaboration.
This four-day event is expected to draw more
than 600 companies / organizations from
around the world and over 60,000 visitors. The
time to act is NOW -- Don’t miss out on the
green opportunities and register your
participation.

To participate
IGEM2014.      go to

www.igem.com.my/2014/