#alternative technology

'Advertisement' for alternative technology, Undercurrents 05, Winter 1973.

New Post has been published on http://texpedia.org/plabon/oxidation-technology-for-wastewater-treatment/

Oxidation Technology for wastewater treatment

Alternative oxidation process

Though the focus of existing technologies is shifting towards Green Chemistry resulting into minimization of effluents from the process. It will probably take 10-15 years to achieve the ultimate zero discharge goal by implementing green chemistry in the processes.

Why alternative technology?

The efficacy of well established technique of biological oxidation has reduced now a days.

This is due to the development of many complex bio-refractory molecules due to the proposed modernization.

Thus it is important to develop technologies, which can either be used as an alternative of conventional techniques.

Alternative oxidation Technology

Individual oxidation technologies are as.

Photocatalytic oxidation

Cavitation

Fenton’s oxidation

Chemical oxidation 

Hybrid technologies

Ultasonic irradiation coupled with H2O2/Ozone

UV irradiation in combination with H2O2/Ozone

Sonophotolytic oxidation, and

Wonderbag

Radical Technology

This book inspired me in 1976. I began a project to rehab a dilapidated house in a an old company tract housing area just outside of Pittsburgh. It was a monumental failure. I'm a goof. Perhaps I've failed in interesting ways sometimes.

Here's a set of photos of the book by James King at Flickr which gives a nice flavor of the book.

What made me think of the book was seeing a post at Ukiah Blog, How “Giftivism” Helped Turn a Tough Oakland Street Into a Close-Knit Community… with a great 6 minute video.

Certainly a part of what made my own attempts a failure was not having others involved with me.

The people involved with the book were also involved with starting The Centre for Alternative Technology. CAT has been going on for 40 years now. There's a nice video by two Polish filmmakers, which amounts to Peter Harper talking about how they might go about setting a a similar center in Poland. What makes it interesting is Harper reflecting on how CAT has managed for 40 years. And he chocks a lot of it up to luck.

This article in The Guardian puts it: "Welsh hippies ushered in an era of sustainable living well before the world had woken up to climate change." Lot's of people my age once considered themselves hippies, but rather quickly put that behind them. I've always been slow, so it wasn't until I got online around 1998 hippies are anathema to lots of folks.

Sometimes on my stream I get a sense that the vision of the Casa de Paz  mentioned in the video at Ukiah Blog is something like many young people aspire to today. But I think there's a hump to get over and that's not liking hippies much. 

Forty years or so is a long time and provides some distance to view the way people did stuff. Lots and lots of stuff didn't work, but even what didn't work can be informative. 

Who sees comic Lewis Schaffer’s shows repeatedly? Well, one is a green woman.

Blanche Cameron and Lewis Schaffer this week

“I would definitely say I’m green,” Blanche Cameron told me.

“Like the Incredible Hulk?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied, “and, on dark nights or under stress, I do get very cross about things.”

My blog yesterday was about the endlessly fascinating – because arguably neurotic – London-based American comedian Lewis Schaffer. But his audience is almost as…

Getting a lift to the future

Makeshift 2013 at the Newhampton Arts Centre

Makeshift 2013 at the Newhampton Arts Centre,…