Uncle Sam Wants You To Recover Energy Materials From Wastewater

November 30, 2024 by Navarre Bartz 22 Comments

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) was founded to support moonshot projects in the realm of energy, with a portfolio that ranges from the edge of current capabilities to some pretty far out stuff. We’re not sure exactly where their newest “Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)” falls, but they’re looking for critical materials from the wastewater treatment process. [via CleanTechnica]

As a refresher, critical materials are those things that are bottlenecks in a supply chain that you don’t want to be sourcing from unfriendly regions. For the electrification of transportation and industrial processes required to lower carbon emissions, lithium, cobalt, and other rare earth elements are pretty high on the list.

ARPA-E also has an interest in ammonia-based products which is particularly interesting as industrial fertilizers can wreak havoc on natural ecosystems when they become run off instead of making it into the soil. As any farmer knows, inputs cost money, so finding an economical way to recover those products from wastewater would be a win-win. “For all categories, the final recovered products will need to include at least two targeted high energy-value materials, have greater than 90% recovery efficiency, and be commercially viable in the U.S. market.” If that sounds like the sort of thing you’d like to try hacking on, consider filling out an Applicant Profile.

If you’re curious about where we’re getting some of these materials from right now, checkout our series on Mining and Refining, including the lithium and cobalt ARPA-E wants more of.

Ultra-Wide Gaming Handheld Channels The Nintendo DS

November 28, 2024 by Lewin Day 16 Comments

“The Nintendo DS isn’t wide enough!” said nobody, ever. Most players found Nintendo’s form factor to be perfectly acceptable for gaming on the go, after all. Still, that doesn’t mean a handheld gaming rig with a more… cinematic aspect ratio couldn’t be fun! [Marcin Plaza] built just that, with great results.

The initial plan was to build a Steam Deck-like device, but using laptop trackpads instead of joysticks. [Marcin] had a broken Lenovo Yoga 730-13 to use as the basis for the build. That caused the plan to diverge, as the only screen [Marcin] could find that was easily compatible with the laptop’s eDP interface was an ultrawide unit. From there, a clamshell enclosure was designed specifically to rehouse all the key components from the Lenovo laptop. The top half of the clamshell would hold the screen, while the base would feature a small custom keyboard, some buttons, and the aforementioned trackpad. This thing reminds us of the Nintendo DS for multiple reasons. It’s not just the clamshell design—it’s the fact it has a touch control on the lower deck, albeit without a screen.

It’s an original concept for a handheld gaming device, and it makes us wish there were more games built for the ultrawide aspect ratio. This is one project that has us browsing the usual websites to see just what other oddball screens are out there… round screens in a makeup compact clamshell, anyone? Video after the break.

Continue reading “Ultra-Wide Gaming Handheld Channels The Nintendo DS” →

Waves crash near a rocky shore. Large, SUV-sized blue "floaters" sit in the water perpendicular to a concrete pier. The floaters look somewhat like a bass boat shrink wrapped in dark blue plastic and attached to a large piston and hinge. A grey SUV sits on the pier, almost as if for scale.

US Is Getting Its First Onshore Wave Power Plant

November 28, 2024 by Navarre Bartz 60 Comments

Renewables let you have a more diverse set of energy inputs so you aren’t putting all your generation eggs in one basket. One type of renewable that doesn’t see a lot of love, despite 80% of the world’s population living within 100 km (~60 mi) of a coastline, is harnessing the energy of the tides. [via Electrek]

“The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that wave energy has the potential to generate over 1,400 terawatt-hours per year,” so while this initial project won’t be huge, the overall possible power generation from tidal power is nothing to sneeze at. Known more for its role in shipping fossil fuels, the Port of Los Angeles will host the new wave power pilot being built by Eco Wave Power and Shell. Eco Wave’s system uses floaters to drive pistons that compress hydraulic fluid and turn a generator before the decompressed fluid is returned to the pistons in a nice, tidy loop.

Eco Wave plans to finish construction by early 2025 and already has the power conversion unit onsite at the Port of Los Angeles. While the press release is mum on the planned install capacity, Eco Wave claims they will soon have 404.7 MW of installed capacity through several different pilot projects around the world.

We covered another Swedish company trying to harness tidal power with underwater kites, and if wave power isn’t your thing but you still like mixing water and electricity, why not try offshore wind or a floating solar farm? Just make sure to keep the noise down!

Receipt paper mural from above eye level

Massive Mural From Thermal Receipt Paper

November 26, 2024 by Heidi Ulrich 11 Comments

Turning trash into art is something we undoubtedly all admire. [Davis DeWitt] did just that with a massive mural made entirely from discarded receipt paper. [Davis] got lucky while doing some light dumpster diving, where he stumbled upon the box of thermal paper rolls. He saw the potential them and, armed with engineering skills and a rental-friendly approach, set out to create something original.

The journey began with a simple test: how long can a receipt be printed, continuously? With a maximum length of 10.5 feet per print, [Davis] designed an image for the mural using vector files to maintain a high resolution. The scale of the project was a challenge in itself, taking over 13 hours to render a single image at the necessary resolution for a mural of this size. The final piece is 30 foot (9.144 meters) wide and 11 foot (3.3528 meters) tall – a pretty conversational piece in anyone’s room – or shop, in [Davis]’ case.

Once the design was ready, the image was sliced into strips that matched the width of the receipt paper. Printing over 1,000 feet of paper wasn’t without its issues, so [Davis] designed a custom spool system to undo the curling of the receipts. Hanging the mural involved 3D-printed brackets and binder clips, allowing the strips to hang freely with a kinetic effect.

Though the thermal paper will fade over time, the beauty of this project lies in its adaptability—just reprint any faded strips. Want to see how it all came together? Watch the full process here.

Continue reading “Massive Mural From Thermal Receipt Paper” →

A Robot Meant For Humans

November 26, 2024 by Bryan Cockfield 11 Comments

Although humanity was hoping for a more optimistic robotic future in the post-war era, with media reflecting that sentiment like The Jetsons or Lost in Space, we seem to have shifted our collective consciousness (for good reasons) to a more Black Mirror/Terminator future as real-world companies like Boston Dynamics are actually building these styles of machines instead of helpful Rosies. But this future isn’t guaranteed, and a PhD researcher is hoping to claim back a more hopeful outlook with a robot called Blossom which is specifically built to investigate how humans interact with robots.

For a platform this robot is not too complex, consisting of an accessible frame that can be laser-cut from wood with only a few moving parts controlled by servos. The robot is not too large, either, and can be set on a desk to be used as a telepresence robot. But Blossom’s creator [Michael] wanted this to help understand how humans interact with robots so the latest version is outfitted not only with a large language model with text-to-speech capabilities, but also with a compelling backstory, lore, and a voice derived from Animal Crossing that’s neither human nor recognizable synthetic robot, all in an effort to make the device more approachable.

To that end, [Michael] set the robot up at a Maker Faire to see what sorts of interactions Blossom would have with passers by, and while most were interested in the web-based control system for the robot a few others came by and had conversations with it. It’s certainly an interesting project and reminds us a bit of this other piece of research from MIT that looked at how humans and robots can work productively alongside one another.

Solar Orbiter Takes Amazing Solar Pictures

November 25, 2024 by Al Williams 9 Comments

There’s an old joke that they want to send an exploratory mission to the sun, but to save money, they are going at night. The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has gotten as close as anything we’ve sent to study our star on purpose, and the pictures it took last year were from less than 46 million miles away. That sounds far away, but in space terms, that’s awfully close to the nuclear furnace. The pictures are amazing, and the video below is also worth watching.

Because the craft was so close, each picture it took was just a small part of the sun’s surface. ESA stitched together multiple images to form the final picture, which shows the entire sun as 8,000 pixels across. We’ll save you the math. We figure each pixel is worth about 174 kilometers or 108 miles, more or less.

Continue reading “Solar Orbiter Takes Amazing Solar Pictures” →

Student-built rocket launch in Black Rock Desert, Nevada

Aftershock II: How Students Shattered 20-Year Amateur Rocket Records

November 24, 2024 by Heidi Ulrich 40 Comments

When it comes to space exploration, we often think of billion-dollar projects—NASA’s Artemis missions, ESA’s Mars rovers, or China’s Tiangong station. Yet, a group of U.S. students at USC’s Rocket Propulsion Lab (RPL) has achieved something truly extraordinary—a reminder that groundbreaking work doesn’t always require government budgets. On October 20, their homemade rocket, Aftershock II, soared to an altitude of 470,000 feet, smashing the amateur spaceflight altitude and speed records held for over two decades. Intrigued? Check out the full article here.

The 14-foot, 330-pound rocket broke the sound barrier within two seconds, reaching hypersonic speeds of Mach 5.5—around 3,600 mph. But Aftershock II didn’t just go fast; it climbed higher than any amateur spacecraft ever before, surpassing the 2004 GoFast rocket’s record by 90,000 feet. Even NASA-level challenges like thermal protection at hypersonic speeds were tackled using clever tricks. Titanium-coated fins, specially engineered heat-resistant paint, and a custom telemetry module ensured the rocket not only flew but returned largely intact.

This achievement feels straight out of a Commander Keen adventure—scrappy explorers, daring designs, and groundbreaking success against all odds. The full story is a must-read for anyone dreaming of building their own rocket.

Continue reading “Aftershock II: How Students Shattered 20-Year Amateur Rocket Records” →