5-Dec-2019: Alcohol manufacturers want import duty reduced for ENA
Alcohol manufacturers have written to NITI Aayog asking for reduction in import duty. Anticipating shortage of domestic supplies, they have sought a reduction in duty to make it cost-effective for them to import Extra Neutral Alcohol from global markets.
Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) is the primary raw material for making alcoholic beverages. It is a colourless food-grade alcohol that does not have any impurities. It has a neutral smell and taste, and typically contains over 95 per cent alcohol by volume. It is derived from different sources — sugarcane molasses and grains — and is used in the production of alcoholic beverages such as whisky, vodka, gin, cane, liqueurs, and alcoholic fruit beverages.
ENA also serves as an essential ingredient in the manufacture of cosmetics and personal care products such as perfumes, toiletries, hair spray, etc. Given its properties as a good solvent, ENA also finds industrial use and is utilised in the production of some lacquers, paints and ink for the printing industry, as well as in pharmaceutical products such as antiseptics, drugs, syrups, medicated sprays. Consultancy firm IMARC Group’s estimates put the ENA market in India at a volume of 2.9 billion litres in 2018.
Like ethanol, ENA is a byproduct of the sugar industry, and is formed from molasses that are a residue of sugarcane processing. In its letter to NITI Aayog anticipating lower supplies, the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies has cited the diversion of ethanol for bio-fuel blending by oil marketing companies, and recent floods in Maharashtra and Karnataka that have adversely affected sugarcane crop in the region.
12-Oct-2019: Elastocaloric Effect of cooling
When rubbers bands are twisted and untwisted, it produces a cooling effect. This is called the “elastocaloric” effect, and researchers have suggested that it can be used in a very relevant context today.
Researchers from multiple universities, including Nankai University in China, have found that the elastocaloric effect, if harnessed, may be able to do away with the need of fluid refrigerants used in fridges and air-conditioners. These fluids are susceptible to leakages, and can contribute to global warming.
In the elastocaloric effect, the transfer of heat works much the same way as when fluid refrigerants are compressed and expanded. When a rubber band is stretched, it absorbs heat from its environment, and when it is released, it gradually cools down. In order to figure out how the twisting mechanism might be able to enable a fridge, the researchers compared the cooling power of rubber fibres, nylon and polyethylene fishing lines and nickel-titanium wires. They observed high cooling from twist changes in twisted, coiled and supercoiled fibres.
They reported that the level of efficiency of the heat exchange in rubber bands “is comparable to that of standard refrigerants and twice as high as stretching the same materials without twisting”.
To demonstrate this setup, the researchers developed a fridge the size of a ballpoint pen cartridge that was able to bring down the temperature of a small volume of water by 8°C in a few seconds. They suggested that their findings may lead to the development of greener, higher-efficiency and low-cost cooling technology.
15-Oct-2019: A fern called Pete has taken the world’s first plant-powered selfie
Earlier this year, Zoological Society of London (ZSL) scientists laid the groundwork for the technological feat by installing microbial fuel cells in ZSL London Zoo’s Rainforest Life exhibit, in order to power a plant to take its own picture - with the ultimate aim of using plants to power camera traps and sensors in the wild.
After spending the summer growing in strength, Pete - a maidenhair fern whose delicate leaves and shiny stalks are clearly visible in the images - has now begun taking his own selfies at an astonishing rate, heralding the trial a resounding success.
Plants naturally deposit biomatter as they grow, which in turn feeds the natural bacteria present in the soil, creating energy that can be harnessed by fuel cells and used to power a wide range of vital conservation tools remotely, including sensors, monitoring platforms and camera traps.
Most power sources have limits - batteries must be replaced while solar panels rely on a source of sunlight - but plants can survive in the shade, naturally moving into position to maximise the potential of absorbing sunlight – meaning the potential for plant-powered energy is pretty much limitless.
The ground-breaking solution, enabled by ultra-low-powered technology created by US AI company Xnor.ai, works around the clock on any device while consuming such low energy it can be powered by a small plant. As a result, it has the potential to monitor inhospitable and remote rainforest locations to record key data such as temperature, humidity and plant growth – all of which are crucial to the understanding of threats such as climate change and habitat loss.
Microbial fuel cells are devices that use bacteria as the catalysts to oxidise organic and inorganic matter and generate current. A research paper from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier this year explained that electrons produced by the bacteria are transferred to the negative terminal and flow to the positive terminal.