Researchers at Purdue University have developed an instrument/software that allows remote sensing of surface soil moisture from an airborne instrument using reflective electromagnetic radiation. This can provide the most efficient method to collect measurements and survey an entire field with high spatial density in a short period of time. It makes use of lower-frequency signals which are required to penetrate the soil. Resolution is determined only by the frequency of the signal, under the assumption of a near-specular reflection, not the antenna size.

Food losses cause a waste of precious resources, including land, water, energy, agricultural inputs, and human labor, used in the production of the lost food. Food loss is caused by a lack of low-cost, effective drying technology to dry food. Currently, over 95 percent of smallholder farmers use open-air drying to dry their crops. While dryers exist, there remains a void for products that are designed to target smallholder farmers.

EcoVida is an Israeli-based CleanTech company and offers a significant reduction of chlorine usage in water treatment and sanitation. EcoVida saves money by reducing chlorine consumption. The new EcoVida technology is based on patented disinfectant-related technology that leads to a significant (up to 50%) reduction in the amount of chlorine consumed during the disinfecting of water.

1. The main principle of Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) is a direct compression of the evaporated vapor to higher pressure thus temperature so it can recycle energy for the heating process in the Evaporator which results is a low consumption of energy. 2. MVR is a distillation process where evaporation of sea or brackish water is obtained by the application of heat delivered by compressed vapor. The MVR system is an energy efficient solution since only 50KWH of electric power per ton of fresh water is required which is merely 5% of required energy for boiling water.

The present invention is a substrate geometry for 3D photovoltaic fabrication with an electrode geometry that is robust against defects in lithography so as to allow less expensive patterning approaches. The thin film photovoltaic device has an outer semiconductor disposed to receive light and first and second contacts disposed in different layers with an insulator between the contacts.

This invention allow flat mirror elements to be easily fabricated and efficiently packaged and shipped to field sites and assembled into the parabolic trough concentrators with potentially substantial costs reductions compared with conventional methods. The mirror is formed from a thin flat very flexible metal sheet with a highly reflective surface. Attached to the rear surface of the mirror sheet is a backbone band whose figure is optimized to form the reflective sheet into a precision parabola when its two ends are pulled toward each other.

Researchers from the University of Belgrade have developed a furnace for the combustion of biomass hay bales with automatic fuel feeding which enables an efficient controlled and continuous combustion process. The system uses agricultural by-products in standard bales form from fields to create thermal energy. It can be used for the production of thermal energy only (for heating and industrial purposes) but also for the combined production of heat and electricity (CHP facilities).

Hitachi Group harnesses its accumulated experience and achievements to offer diverse support for the introduction of home appliance recycling technologies: including the development of a business model consultancy on business development technology transfer patent licensing and introductions to partner companies in many countries.

Biofilms form in aquatic systems on nearly all surfaces and thus represent a part of the microbial community. Three dimensional structures develop from bacteria cells extracellular polymer materials and particles. The colonization of a surface does not take place evenly but rather in a non-uniform manner. When electromagnetic waves with a wavelength of several hundredths of a nanometer hit a biofilm they can be reflected strewn or absorbed. An exact determination of the population density can be achieved by measuring a surface larger than one cubic centimeter.