Cleantech ticker: 14 April 2009
Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:
- Spending on global carbon offset projects has declined this year and is likely to continue doing so until nations can agree to a new international treaty on climate change, the Worldwatch Institute reports;
- Some of the world’s top computer science and engineering students will gather in Stockholm next week for the “Battle of the Brains,” a competition of 100 three-person teams with the goal of solving a dozen problems modeled after real-world business challenges;
- Frost & Sullivan have released a report about water-to-water heat pumps, in which hot water is captured and relocated to a second heating stage, where the temperature is raised and the water is used as a heating source for a building’s heating requirements;
- Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered iron-based “green” catalysts that might replace the more expensive and toxic platinum metals typically used in industrial chemical processes to produce drugs, fragrances and flavours;
- Purdue University researchers have developed a technology that detects damage to a military vehicle’s suspension when the vehicle drives over a speedbump-like “diagnostic cleat” with sensors;
- Scientists conducting experiments at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 have concluded that climate change will cause piñon pines across the US Southwest to die off five times as fast even if droughts are no worse than in the past.
