Cheap plastic made from sugarcane

Making plastic from sugar can be just as cheap as making it from petroleum, and it’s a lot better for the environment. Dow Chemical plans to build a plant in Brazil that it says will be the world’s largest facility for making bio-based chemical products.

Most large-volume chemicals are made from petroleum. About 80 million tons of polyethylene are made annually around the world. But high oil prices have increased the costs of petrochemicals. Sugar-cane ethanol production has allowed the industry to drive down costs, making ethanol competitive with fossil fuels.

Dow Chemical is keeping costs down by handling every part of the process, from growing the sugar-cane to producing the polymers. This makes it possible, to provide energy to run the plant with biomass left over from producing sugar from sugar-cane.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/38114/?p1=MstRcnt

Real natural energy

I love it when advertising companies step outside of their comfort zone and come up with something fresh. I’m get even more excited when it involves science.

What the guys and girls from Tropicana, DDB Paris and Unit9 came up with is billboard powered by oranges. Yes just oranges, no conventional power sources are used.

It works with a grid of copper and zinc spikes. You then push oranges into these spikes, turning it into a multi-cell battery powerful enough to light up the lights in the billboard. Apparently it took quite a bit of time doing the wiring and then there was also a three month testing phase involved.

The result is an awesome orange powered billboard for Tropicana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_zoHUykPi4