Top 10 Electronic-Enabled Tech Highlights From CES 2020

January 15, 2020 • Alternative Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Electronics, Cyber Security, Design Hardware & Software, Electronics & Test, Gadget Freak, IoT, Medical, Science, Sensors, Sustainability, Technology

Not all cool tech involved robots and autonomous cars. Here’s a list of the other electronic tech featured at the show.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 featured a range of marvals enabled by electronic technologies covering application areas from smart cities, AI edge intelligence, body haptics, security systems, real-time accident reports, uncooled thermo cameras, wearables and more.

Here are the top 10 products and technologies that piqued the interest of the Design News editorial staff.
Smart Cities

Why do major Japanese car manufacturers like to build smart homes and now cities? Several years ago, Honda built a zero-net energy smart home in partnership with UC-Davis. At this year’s CES, Toyota announced it will build a smart city to test their AI, robots and self-driving cars. Toyota’s Woven City will be built at the foothills of Mt. Fuji in Japan. The city will be the world’s first urban incubator dedicated to the advancement of all aspects of mobility, claims Toyota.

The project is a collaboration between the Japanese carmaker and the Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Houses in Woven City will have in-home robotics to help with the more mundane tasks of daily life. The homes will have full-connectivity, which will be needed for the sensor-based AI to automate many household chores, like restocking the refrigerator and taking out the trash. Power storage units and water purification systems will be hidden beneath the ground.
Intelligence At The Edge

Blaize is a computing company that optimizes AI at scale wherever data is collected and processed from the edge. The company enables a range of existing and new AI use cases in the automotive, smart vision, and enterprise computing segments. The company claims that developers can create new classes of products to bring the benefits of AI and machine learning to broad markets.

The company has developed a fully programmable GSP architecture that utilizes task-level parallelism and streaming execution processing to take advantage of very low energy consumption, high performance and scalability. Blaize claims that, in comparison, existing GPUs and FPGAs exert a much higher energy price, while CPUs cost more and scale poorly, and all are subject to excessive latency due to their sequential execution processing architectures.
Full-Body Haptics Suit

Haptics are all about the sense of touch. Now you can immerse your entire body – or at least 70 tactile points mainly around your torso – into the world of artificial experiences. The BHaptics Tacksuit provides an audio-to-haptic feature that converts sound into haptic feedbacks that are felt real time around your torso. For example, when a bomb explodes or you hear footsteps during a PC/VR game, you’ll feel the experience from the right direction. You’ll even be able to feel Samurai cuts and friendly hugs.
Security Comes In Many Forms

There are many ways to protect your PC data and applications, from hardware encrypted portable storage devices, backup solutions, file repair software, and data recovery, to digital forensics services. SecureData provides both products and services in these areas. At CES, the company demonstrated a secure UBS drive which they claimed was the only hardware encrypted flash drive in the world with keypad and Bluetooth authentication.
Wireless Six-Degrees Of Freedom (6DOF)

Atraxa’s system tracks 6DOF motion without the need for optical cameras or infrared markers to be placed around the room, or mounted externally to the XR headset or controller. And no line of sight—or wires—are required between the headset and controllers. Unhindered by wires or line-of-sight constraints, users can move freely in large spaces. Even move from room to room without any room mapping, or controller orienting (or reorienting) is required. Tracking starts immediately and lasts without interruption.

The tech combines electromagnetic (EM) and inertial technologies into a single sensor-fusion tracking platform. The IMU (inertial measurement unit) returns acceleration and angular velocity data. The EM tracker delivers true position and orientation data; it also establishes the tracking volume and local coordinate system. Atraxa is comprised of two main components: a tracker module and receiver module. The tracker module houses the IMU and an EM transmitter coil that generates the magnetic field (i.e. the tracking volume). The tracker modules are embedded into the handheld controllers (or other peripherals).
Real-Time Accident Report

Sooner or later, all of us get into an automotive accident. When that occures, wouldn’t it be great to have a record of what happened? Through the use of embedded acceleration sensors, MDGo generates a real-time report in the case of a car crash, detailing each occupant’s injuries by body region. The company’s technology enables accurate delivery of needed services and support by providing optimal medical care in the case of an emergency and supporting the claim process.
Smart Factory

Could a factory think for itself or autonomously design a better car or aircraft? Can it eliminate waste? All of these questions fit into the realm of manufacturing intelligence. One company with experience in this area is Hexagon, claiming that their technologies are used to produce 85% of smartphones, 75% of cars and 90% of aircraft.

Their Smart Factory approach aims to have fewer inputs, zero waste and high quality. All this is achieved through sensor, software and autonomous solutions that incorporates data feedback to improve work to boost efficiency, productivity, and quality across industrial and manufacturing.
A Cool “Uncooled” Methane Gas Detector

The FLIR GF77 Gas Find IR is the company’s first uncooled thermal camera designed for detecting methane. This handheld camera offers inspection professionals the features they need to find potentially dangerous, invisible methane leaks at natural gas power plants, renewable energy production facilities, industrial plants, and other locations along a natural gas supply chain. The gas detector provides methane gas detection capability at roughly half the price of cooled gas inspection thermal cameras, to empower the oil and gas industry to reduce emissions and ensure a safer work environment.
IoT Arduino Adds LoRaWAN Connectivity

You can now connect your sensors and actuators over long distances via the LoRa wireless protocol or throughout LoRaWAN networks. The Arduino MKR WAN 1310 board provides a practical and cost effective solution to add LoRa connectivity to projects requiring low power. This open source board can be connected to: the Arduino IoT Cloud, your own LoRa network using the Arduino LoRa PRO Gateway, existing LoRaWAN infrastructure like The Things Network, or even other boards using the direct connectivity mode.
Wearables, Ingestibles, Invisibles

One of the keys to a healthy life is nutrition. But what exactly constitutes ‘healthy’ food for a specific person? To answer that question, you need to measure and analyze the processes inside the complex human digestive system. Imec is working on prototype technology that is up to that task. It’s called ingestible sensors.

The company also develops wearables for medical and consumer applications that enable reliable, continuous, comfortable, and long-term health monitoring & management. This includes high-accuracy & low-power biomedical sensing technologies sometimes embedded into fabrics.

John Blyler is a Design News senior editor, covering the electronics and advanced manufacturing spaces. With a BS in Engineering Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering, he has years of hardware-software-network systems experience as an editor and engineer within the advanced manufacturing, IoT and semiconductor industries. John has co-authored books related to system engineering and electronics for IEEE, Wiley, and Elsevier.

The 12 Best Innovations Of CES 2020

January 14, 2020 • 3D Printing, Alternative Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Automation & Motion Control, Battery/Energy Storage, Consumer Electronics, Design Hardware & Software, Electronics & Test, Gadget Freak, Government/Defense, IoT, Materials & Assembly, Medical, Science, Sensors, Sustainability, Technology

Forget new TVs and smartphones. These are the real game changers introduced at CES 2020.

Now that the smoke is cleared from CES 2020, we can take a step back and see which technologies were the real innovations of 2020. Let’s be honest, CES can be a black hole of vaporware, false promises, and concepts intended to be just that.

We’ve compiled a list of our favorite technologies introduced at CES 2020 – innovations that we’re sure will be having a lasting impact in 2020 and beyond.
AerNos AerSIP Gas Sensor

The AerSIP from AerNos is a 5 x 5-mm, mulit-gas sensing module that combines nanotechnology and machine learning algorithms to monitor indoor and outdoor air quality. The system-in-package (SIP) is an embedded plug-and-play solution that can be integrated into wearables, mobile devices, and other IoT devices and is capable of detecting hazardous gases and other dangers at parts per billion levels.

(Image source: AerNos/CES)
AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processor

AMD’s Ryzen 4000 could be a literal game changer for high-end laptops users – particularly gamers and designers. AMD says its new Ryzen 4000 series is the world’s first 7-nanometer laptop processor. Designed for ultra-thin laptops, the Ryzen 4000 series features up to 8 cores and 16 threads and configurable 15W thermal design power. AMD pledges the Ryzen 4000 series offers up to four percent greater single-thread performance and up to 90 percent faster multithreaded performance than its competitors, as well as up to 18 percent faster graphics performance over competing chips.

(Image source: AMD)
Atmosic Technologies M3 Battery-Free Bluetooth 5 SoC

Atmosic says its M3 Battery-Free Bluetooth 5 SoC uses so little power that it can even eliminate the need for battery power entirely in devices such as wearables, keyboards, mice, asset trackers, beacons, and remotes. The M3 integrates Atmosic’s Lowest Power Radio, On-demand Wake-Up, and Managed Energy Harvesting technologies to deliver what the company says is 10 to 100 times lower power than other SoCs, while still complying with Bluetooth standards. The M3’s radio uses two “ears” – one for listening in a low-power state to perceive incoming commands, and another that only wakes when alerted. The SoC uses energy harvesting technology to gather power from radio frequency, photovoltaic, thermal, and motion.

(Image source: Atmosic)
Bot3 Zen-P VSLAM Deep Learning Module

Bot3‘s Zen-P VSLAM Deep Learning module integrates visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) technology (a version of the same technology used in autonomous vehicles) into mobile robots ranging from industrial machines to smart home products. Bot3’s image processing algorithm, Pascal, allows for autonomous navigation without tracks as well as indoor mapping and positioning. (for instances such as warehouse applications).

(Image source: Bot3)
BrainCo BrainRobotics Prosthetic Hand

Many companies have been developing mind-controlled prosthetics for amputees and other disabled patients. What separates the prosthetic hand developed by BrainRobotics is the integration of AI technology. The BrainRobotics hand utilizes machine learning to allow the hand and its user to learn from each other over time – leading to more lifelike movements. The company is aiming to provide accurate and reliable prosthetics and at affordable price for all patients. BrainRobotics is a subsidiary of BrainCo, a software developer focused on brainwave measuring and monitoring.

(Image source: BrainCo/BrainRobotics)
Fluent.ai MultiWake Word and Voice Control Engine

Fluent.ai is a technology company focused on AI for voice interface and speech recognition. The company’s Multi-Wake Word and Voice Control Engine is an edge-based, noise robust, and multilingual speech technology that consumes minimal power and storage, allowing it to be embedded in small devices. The solution is Cortex M4-based and supports four separate wake words and 100 multilingual commands, according to Fluent.ai.

Fluent.ai has recently partnered with semiconductor designer Ambiq Micro to implement Fluent.ai’s software solutions into Ambiq’s ultra-small footprint, low-power microcontrollers. Ambiq’s MCU supports frequencies up to 96 MHz, and Fluent.ai’s solution requires only 16 MHz from the MCU. The new partnership means Fluent.ai and Ambiq will be releasing MCUs for OEMs looking for an easy way to add speech recognition and voice command functionality to their smart home devices and other products.

(Image source: Fluent.ai / CES
Intel Tiger Lake Chip

When Intel announces a new chip, the whole world takes notice. The chipmaking giant is launching its latest chip for consumers this year. Dubbed Tiger Lake, the new chip is said to be optimized for AI performance, graphics, and USB 3 throughput. Rather than desktops, the new chips will be focused on mobile devices such as ultra-thin laptops and tablets. The first products featuring Tiger Lake are expected to ship later in 2020.

(Image source: Intel)
Monster MultiLink Bluetooth Technology

Sometimes its the most straightforward ideas that can make the biggest difference. Most of us love our Bluetooth wireless headphones and earbuds. The problem is they don’t create a sharable experience. What if you want to show your friend the video you’re watching without disturbing the people around you? Monster has debuted a new technology called Music Share that uses MultiLink technology to allow devices to send Bluetooth audio to multiple devices in sync. The technology expands how Bluetooth headphones can be used and opens up new use cases ranging from air travel to fitness classes as well as new avenues for social interaction.

(Image source: Bluetooth SIG)
Murata Coral Accelerator Module

Working in partnership with Coral and Google, Murata Electronics has developed what it is calling the world’s smallest AI module. The Coral Accelerator Module packages Google’s Edge TPU ASIC into a miniaturized footprint to enable developers to embed edge-based AI into their products and devices. The new module forms an integral part of Coral’s integrated AI platform, which also includes a toolkit of software tools and pre-compiled AI models.

(Image source: Murata Electronics Americas)
Pollen Robotics Reachy Open-Source Robot

Reachy is a robot developed by Pollen Robotics, in collaboration with the INCIA Neuroscience Institute in France, that is fully open source. The robot, which can be programmed using Python, is modular – employing a variety of 3D-printed grippers – and comes with prepackaged AI algorithms to allow developers to customize it for a variety of applications ranging from customer service and assisting the elderly or disabled.

Read more about Reachy, and the rise of open-source robotics, here.

(Image source: Pollen Robotics)
VRgineers 8K XTAL Headset

VRgineers, a maker of premium VR headsets for enterprise applications in industries ranging from automotive to defense and military, has released a major upgrade to its flagship XTAL headset. The latest version of XTAL features 8K resolution (4K per eye), improved lenses with a 180-degree field-of-view, and a new add-on module for augmented reality and mixed reality functionality. The headset also still includes eye tracking as well as integrated Leap Motion sensors to enable controller-free navigation and interactions.

(Image source: VRgineers)
zGlue ChipBuilder

zGlue is a software company that develops tools for chipmakers and designers. Its latest offering, ChipBuilder 3.0 is a design tool to for building custom silicon chips and accelerating time to market. The software suite features an expansive library of chipsets and allows engineers to capture schematics, route and verify designs, and download netlists. The tool allows engineers to create realistic 3D models and code their own chips and even place orders for physical chips via zGlue’s Shuttle Program.

(Image source: zGlue / CES)

Chris Wiltz is a Senior Editor at Design News covering emerging technologies including AI, VR/AR, blockchain, and robotics

Are plastic recycling programs rubbish?

January 9, 2020 • Consumer Products, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Once an admirable goal for plastic packaging and single-use plastic products, recycling of late has been called “garbage” (New York Times Magazine), “greenwashing” (Greenbiz) and “The Great Recycling Con” (New York Times). In the latter article, authors Tala Schlossebers and Nayeema Raza call recycling “propaganda” because the industry “wants to trick us into thinking we can use as much plastic as we want so long as we recycle.”

Gee, Tala and Nayeema, tell us how you really feel about recycling!

landfill

Recycling seems to have hit a brick wall primarily because of problems associated with the incompatibility of various plastics. “Current plastic recycling and sustainability goals are limited by the intrinsic incompatibility of many polymers and the negative effect of fillers and impurities on end-product properties, thus requiring a high degree of expensive sorting, separating and cleaning,” Sal Monte, President of Kenrich Petrochemicals Inc. (Bayonne, NJ), told PlasticsToday. Another barrier is that the melt processing of polymers causes “chain scissoring,” resulting in recycle and regrind materials having inferior properties compared with virgin resins.

That is why sorting—a labor-intensive activity that results in a lot of waste—is necessary. Monte noted that the reason for separating #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) from #5 and #7 is because of the incompatibility between the materials, “unless you use titanium/aluminum additives that perform in situ catalysis of polymers and coupling of fillers,” he said. Using innovative additive technology that permits co-mingling of plastic materials into a single waste stream and deriving value from these materials to produce new products is the Holy Grail of recycling.

Monte said that current compatibilizers offered to recyclers are based on co-polymers or maleic anhydride (MAH) modified polymers. “Co-polymer compatibilizers require extensive sorting to match up the polarities of the recycled materials, and maleic anhydride often depolymerizes condensation polymers such as PET and nylon, obviating their use in post-consumer recycle,” explained Monte. “MAH technology claims to be a coupling agent, which is true for rebuilding polymer molecular weight, but it’s a misnomer when applied to coupling filler and organic interfaces.”

But the real problem is money, noted Monte. For recyclers, it’s unlikely that they will spend a penny more on additives to compatabilize co-mingled polymers. He said that sustainability goals such as a circular economy using curbside recyclate in new plastic parts are not achievable economically absent subsidization and legislation because of:

Shale oil—virgin is cheaper;
China’s National Sword—no market;
quality—Industry 4.0/automation;
product liability litigation—specs must be met;
additives are expensive—recyclers will not add a penny to their material costs unless extensive and expensive on-site experimentation is allowed to demonstrate economic and technical efficacy;
curbside recyclers are not polymer chemists—it’s complicated.

Monte agrees with what I’ve written several times in my previous blogs. “Bulk recycling has pretty much been a confusing mess since it started,” he said.

Image: Aryfahmed/Adobe Stock

Cub Cadet introduces electric riding mowers

December 30, 2019 • Battery/Energy Storage, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Image source: Cub Cadet

The agronomic geniuses at Cub Cadet know, probably better than any of us, the pain of struggling to get the mower to start in the spring, after it has spent the winter with the ethanol-blended gasoline turning to gum in the carburetor, ensuring an incorrect fuel mixture on that brisk-but-dry spring day when the grass has gotten too long to continue ignoring and is also dry enough to cut.

That’s why they’ve brought the miracle of lithium-ion battery electric power tools and cars to the garden tractor arena, with the introduction of the LT42 e electric garden tractor-style mower, which joins the CC 30 e electric riding mower and the RZT S Zero electric zero-turning radius riding mower in Cub Cadet’s family.

The $3,999 LT42 e features a 3 kilowatt-hour battery pack that powers the mower for an hour and a half of cutting time over as much as two acres of land. The twin blade cut a 42-inch swath and the mower’s top speed (probably not while mowing) is 5.5 mph.

Cub Cadet recommends that you keep the LT42 e plugged in over the winter so it is ready to go in the spring, but you needed to keep your electric-start gas-powered riding mower plugged in to the battery tender over the winter anyway, if you wanted it to start after sitting all winter.

Image source: Cub Cadet

The 240-volt Rapid Recharge system can refill the battery pack in four hours, and you can also charge it using a regular 120-volt wall socket if that’s all that is available.

The LT42 e has a low-battery warning that provides time to disengage the mowing blades and drive straight back to the garage for a charge, so you aren’t faced with pushing the 420-lb. mower to the nearest electric outlet.

Image souce: Cub Cadet

“The Cub Cadet LT42 e combines the newest in battery technology with the high-level performance Cub Cadet is known for,” said Trevor Oriold, business segment director for Cub Cadet. “From superior cut quality in a powerfully quiet package to the low-maintenance upkeep, it’s innovation without compromise in a way that will change how you mow.”

If it can do this without running out of juice 90 percent of the way through the job like my line trimmer always seems to do, it will be a welcome innovation to lawn care.

Image source: Cub Cadet

Dan Carney is a Design News senior editor, covering automotive technology, engineering and design, especially emerging electric vehicle and autonomous technologies.

Food-derived materials used to make safer, stickier glues

December 25, 2019 • Consumer Electronics, Electronics & Test, Materials & Assembly, Science, Sustainability, Technology

The Purdue University team chose compounds in foods, like plants, nuts and fruits – all of which might have similar chemistry to the adhesives seen in shellfish that stick to rock – to develop new, non-toxic adhesives for single-use applications.. (Image source: Purdue University)

A research team a Purdue University has taken inspiration from natural food sources to develop new, strong adhesive materials from compounds in nuts, fruits, and plants.

Gudrun Schmidt, an associate professor in Purdue’s College of Science, said the researchers hope their materials can replace the glues currently used in electronics and other consumer products, which are typically made from petroleum-based materials and are toxic to the environment.

“Adhesives are used in almost every consumer product that we touch each day,” Schmidt said in a press statement. “We would love to leave this planet a better place for the future generations. It turns out creating new adhesives is one way that we will get there.”

The team is especially interested in developing more eco-friendly adhesives for single-use products, which are those that produce the most waste and thus could significantly benefit from non-toxic adhesives, researchers said.

High performance without toxicity

The materials the researchers focused on are formed from corn zein protein and tannic acid, according to an abstract for a paper published about the work in the journal Advanced Sustainable Systems.

“High-strength adhesive bonding is found when the formulations are optimized with regard to composition, pH, and curing temperature,” the researchers explained in the abstract.

The team tested the bonding of their adhesive on aluminum substrates using lap shear configurations. In these tests, they reported that adhesives formed from these materials, at maximum adhesion, can be as strong as commercial Super Glue “when measured under similar conditions.”

“Adhesion strengths exceed the minimal bonding of zein‐only controls,” they wrote. “The system forms nanometer and micrometer-sized pores throughout the bulk adhesive.”

A low amount of tannic acid and neutral pH of the strongest adhesive make the materials based on corn zein–tannic acid “potentially appealing” for a number of commercial applications. Those include “adhesives used in packaging, cosmetics, and other single-use applications where biomedical grade purity is not required.”

“We found that some combinations of zein protein and tannic acid could be reacted together in order to generate high-performance adhesives that could be alternatives to carcinogenic formaldehyde used in the glues that hold lots of furniture and other household items together,” Schmidt said in a press statement. “It would be a big health benefit if we could switch over to bio-based or even food-based adhesives.”

Other potential applications for the adhesive materials developed by the team include cardboard packaging, cosmetics, and construction materials like plywood, she added.

Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer who has written about technology and culture for more than 20 years. She has lived and worked as a professional journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco and New York City. In her free time she enjoys surfing, traveling, music, yoga and cooking. She currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal.

France charts course for zero-waste society

December 24, 2019 • Materials, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

There is a French revolution nouveau taking place—a revolt against single-use plastics (SUPs). In case you haven’t heard, the French government wants to eliminate all disposable plastic packaging by 2040.

You may have read about France’s decision to end the use of straws, glasses, cutlery, plates, drink stirrers, take-out cups and lids as well as food boxes made of EPS that will take effect in January. France wants to take that a step further, by going from a “disposable” society to a “reusable” one in the country’s drive for Zero Waste 2040 by banning all plastic packaging.

Single-use plastic cutlery

All products that were formerly “disposable” must be “reusable.” That means that even fast food restaurants must provide cutlery, plates, cups and lids that can be washed/sterilized and reused, which pretty much ends the take-out business many of these restaurants currently provide. The energy and water used to ensure the sanitary conditions of these utensils and plates will be enormous. But France has plenty of energy from its nuclear power plants, so energy—and, obviously, potable water—is not a problem.

According to a report by Axel Barrett in Bioplastics News, the bill that will ban all plastic packaging also prohibits the “free distribution of plastic bottles in public and business places. All will have to be equipped with water fountains.” Plans call for the deployment of “bulk devices by 2021, forcing sellers to accept containers brought by the consumer.” Manufacturers who use any type of plastic overwrap will run the risk of a “financial penalty.”

An article in the online media publication Euractiv noted that the “timetable for getting rid of disposable plastics adopted by the majority of [Members of Parliament] has caused an outcry, given that it seems disconnected from what the European Parliament recently declared to be an ‘environmental emergency.’” Euractiv noted that last March, the EU Parliament adopted a “less extensive ban of plates, cutlery, cotton buds and straws” scheduled for 2021.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) of France complained: “We cannot wait until 2040 to ban disposable bags, small bottles or plastics in public and at events,” said Euractiv, noting that WWF France “is asking the government to take concrete and immediate action.”

I suppose the French aren’t as concerned about food safety as they are about getting rid of plastic. In many cases, a plastic overwrap is used to protect the product from tampering by some nefarious persons with the intent to do harm to the general public. It also can add to the shelf-life of a product by serving as an added barrier from oxygen that can result in spoilage. That also goes for barrier packaging that employs layers of plastic—forget that! Banned! Food waste will soon be a big problem in France.

And if you think that “bioplastics” and “compostable” packaging products are exempt, think again. As Barrett reported, the French parliament also adopted a new amendment that says if the “packaging is not ‘home compostable’ it cannot be labeled ‘compostable.’” As Barrett noted in his editorial, “This will force bioplastics companies to aim for home compostability instead of just industrial compostability.”

However, we must remind Barrett that “bioplastic” isn’t necessarily “compostable.” Not all compostable materials—plastics and paperboard—can actually be composted in a commercial/industrial composting facility, much less a backyard composting bin. How many Parisians, for example, have a composting bin? Will the French parliament mandate that all households have a composting bin that can actually compost plastics and paperboard? Will the urban French have to install under-the-sink composting bins?

Backyard composting is work! The environment must be kept at a temperature that is conducive to creating compost. The layers of dirt and food waste must be turned every few days. Even large industrial composting facilities have found that compostable or biodegradable plastics and some heavier paperboard containers will not break down enough in six months for the compost to be sold to consumers.

Let’s face it, “biodegradable” and “compostable” are terms used by companies to “greenwash” their products. Barrett believes that this new mandate by the French parliament “may enable a true bioplastics packaging revolution.”

Or maybe not.

The French Parliament recently had an enlightening experience. The alternative for take-out packaging—food containers and cups—is paper or paperboard. However, the plastics lobby educated Members of Parliament on the fact that paper and paperboard cups and take-out food containers are not “waterproof” without a protective layer of—wait for it—plastic! That makes these paper and paperboard items non-recyclable, non-biodegradable and non-compostable!

Plastic cups and lids, plates and take-out containers are recyclable. “Many stakeholders of the plastic industry were afraid that the paper and cardboard industry would benefit from the plastic bashing in the sense that it would be perceived as a sustainable alternative,” Barrett wrote in his editorial. “The plastic lobby was more efficient than the cardboard and paper lobby. The end of paper and cardboard cups in Europe is coming.”

Biological enzymes eyed as source for creating hydrogen fuels

December 21, 2019 • Materials & Assembly, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Researchers long have seen hydrogen-based gases as a way to solve the emissions problem that our global dependence on fossil fuels has created. However, a major stumbling block is that the production of hydrogen for these fuels has never been efficient or cost-effective enough for mass production.

University of Illinois, University of California, Davis, hydrogen-based gasses, biological enzyme, hydrogenase

Chemistry professor Thomas Rauchfuss and collaborators are looking to biological processes to find an efficient source of hydrogen gas as an environmentally friendly fuel. (Image source: Fred Zwicky)

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of California, Davis have tried to solve this. Chemists on the team have discovered more about how synthetic enzymes can play a role in the simple production of hydrogen.

A team led by University of Illinois Chemistry Professor Thomas Rauchfuss has identified a biological enzyme, or hydrogenase, that can help synthesize hydrogen more efficiently than any current process. Specifically, they worked with one of the two varieties of these enzymes—iron-iron enzymes—because it can generate hydrogen gas faster than the other, nickel-iron enzymes.

Hydrogenases are basically nature’s machinery for making and burning hydrogen gas. “Hydrogenases are enzymes, which can be thought of as small machines embedded in a fluffy protein,” Rauchfuss told Design News. “The machine [equals the] active site.”

Moreover, these enzymes either “eat” H2 or secrete H2 depending on their circumstances (their environment), Rauchfuss explained. “If the organism is stuck deep in the mud away from air, they ferment biomass, and release H2. Their only way to pull H2 from their substrates is using hydrogenases.”

On the other hand, organisms higher up toward the surface with eat the H2 by using hydrogenases to pull electrons out of H2 and use those electrons to convert some oxidant, he told us.

Finding the right recipe

Researchers set out to find the right chemical composition to synthesize a hydrogenase based on the iron-iron material balance to interact efficiently with hydrogen for potential fuel production. “Organisms have only one way of interacting with H2, and that way involves hydrogenase enzymes,” Rauchfuss said. “Otherwise H2 just does not interact with living creatures. It’s just inert. But hydrogenases do interact with H2 and then wire their interaction to other parts of the cell.”

Before embarking on the project, the chemists on the team already had a general understanding of the chemical composition of the active sites within the enzyme. Building upon this knowledge, they came up with a hypothesis that the sites were assembled using 10 parts: four carbon monoxide molecules, two cyanide ions, two iron ions, and two groups of a sulfur-containing amino acid called cysteine.

Eventually, researchers discovered that they had hypothesized wrong. It was instead more likely that the enzyme’s engine was composed of two identical groups containing five chemicals: two carbon monoxide molecules, one cyanide ion, one iron ion, and one cysteine group. The groups form one tightly bonded unit, and the two units combine to give the engine a total of 10 parts.

However, there was even another surprise in store for researchers after doing laboratory analysis of the lab-synthesized enzyme, Rauchfuss said. The team realized their formula for enzyme composition is incomplete. There are actually 11 bits required to make the active site engine rather than 10.

Researchers plan to continue their work by searching for that last piece of the puzzle. The team reported their findings in a paper the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

While it’s unclear what specific applications will come out of the work. The research could provide an assembly kit that will be instructive to other catalyst design projects. “The take-away from this study is that it is one thing to envision using the real enzyme to produce hydrogen gas, but it is far more powerful to understand its makeup well enough to able to reproduce it for use in the lab,” Rauchfuss said.

January 28-30: North America’s largest chip, board, and systems event, DesignCon, returns to Silicon Valley for its 25th year! The premier educational conference and technology exhibition, this three-day event brings together the brightest minds across the high-speed communications and semiconductor industries, who are looking to engineer the technology of tomorrow. DesignCon is your rocket to the future. Ready to come aboard? Register to attend!

Here's what's on the plastics industry's wish list for 2020

December 20, 2019 • business, Compounding, Consumer Products, Extrusion: Film & Sheet, Extrusion: Pipe & Profile, Injection Molding, Materials, Medical, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

It was one hell of a [insert your adjective] year, but one thing you can’t say is that it was boring. That was true of the movies—The Irishman! Ford v Ferrari! Once Upon a Time in Hollywood! Parasite!—music—Billie Eilish! Lizzo! Billie Eilish!—and, last but not least, politics—Trump! Brexit! Impeachment!

It was a year to remember for the plastics industry, as well, 2019 being a K year, after all. We had a great time at the show, discovering new products, identifying trends and catching up with folks in the industry from around the world.

year change to 2020

But 2019 is winding down and our attention turns to the year ahead, which gave us the idea of asking people associated with the plastics industry what was on their wish list for 2020. Here’s what they told us.

A special thanks to all of the folks who shared their 2020 wish lists with PlasticsToday, and now we invite you, dear readers, to share your wishes for the new year in the comments section below. And allow me to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy new year. Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear, as someone once sang.

Circularity of the economy is a must for the future

Mark Costa, Eastman “As a materials innovation company, Eastman is working toward creating infinite value from our finite resources as we strive to improve the quality of life globally in a material way. We believe circularity of the economy is a must for the future and that chemical recycling is a critical tool for making that happen. In this arena, our greatest wish for 2020 is that chemical recycling becomes accepted as a legitimate recycling option, facilitated by a mass balance credit approach. As a subset of that, we want to see policies and infrastructure created to drive the collection, aggregation and distribution of plastic waste to companies like ours that can use it right now as a feedstock to create new, circular materials.”

—Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO, Eastman

We will drive digitalization even further

Stefan Engleder, ENGEL “Digitalization is paving the way for solving some of the toughest challenges of our time. One important field are the emerging initiatives regarding the circular economy. Only by connecting companies along the value chain, will we be capable of implementing a sustainable recycling network. Digitalization is the enabler of a modern, healthy and eco-friendly life. For 2020, I wish that together, with our customers, we will drive digitalization even further.”

—Dr. Stefan Engleder, CEO, Engel Holding

Plastics is strong

David Preusse, Wittmann Battenfeld USA “Plastic bans continue and may be gaining some momentum, but I can’t state the actual effects since much of it is based on emotion and there are hardly any better materials to replace plastics. We see more advances in plastics applications in the medical field that continue to save lives and push life expectancy. It’s too bad the public isn’t learning how plastics are saving lives and contributing to our sustainability. As governments add more bans and brand owners demand recycling, while China isn’t taking our trash, we might start to see the real change that I believe is possible. Landfills are not the answer.

“The U.S. division of Wittmann Battenfeld had a super year. After 12 years of a wonderful economic climb, I don’t expect 2020 growth necessarily, but if we actually do see growth, I will be very pleased.

“If we don’t follow the negative news media, we are still so fortunate here in the United States. Plastics is strong, and we all should be proud. If a partial slow down comes, just maybe we slow the issue we face in not having enough of a technical trained workforce and slow the challenges in such a low unemployment situation (technical unemployment is below 2%!).”

—David Preusse, President, Wittmann Battenfeld USA

Main image: Phunrawin/Adobe Stock

Transportation electrification transformation key to rapid regional resilience

December 20, 2019 • Electronics & Test, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Despite mounting evidence from the world’s scientists of the desperate need for climate change mitigation, despite nearly three decades of international summits to come to terms with our historic challenge, we’re addicted to fossil fuels in the same manner as someone that refuses to let go of the very cigarettes that are killing him.

regional resilience, climate change, electricity, energy future

Tackling Regional Resilience at small scale in local towns and small islands will teach us all how we can begin a managed transition away from reliance on old systems. (Image source: Nexight)

For the past century and more, we’ve spent trillions building out our electric infrastructure to leverage energy stored in coal and, now, natural gas. Alongside, we’ve built our transportation system on refined petroleum – gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The idea of walking away from these massive investments that gave us modern life seems unimaginable to many people, most notably political leaders who refuse to lead us out. When our leaders fail to underscore the critical need for mitigation, they are failing to connect the dots that lead to carbon emissions and spell doom for generations to come. So far, taking action to decarbonize our lives has proven just too big a lift for leaders and institutions, just as it has for the individual consumer.

Now, as extreme weather like California wildfires, Category 5 hurricanes and frequent 100- and 500-year flooding fill the news, regions directly affected are confronted with the need to adapt to the consequences of our collective failure to address our fossil fuel consumption. Amid the doom and gloom like the dire climate report released on the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday, now that’s ironic), the inescapable conclusion for those in regions who experienced life changing severe weather is that business-as-usual has come to a screeching halt.

When PG&E enacted its Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) policy and disconnected hundreds to thousands in high wind conditions to avoid wildfires, they put millions and billions on notice that the status quo of historic reliability was wavering. Dramatic change is no longer inconceivable for Californians who suddenly lost power for days at a time. A less reliable grid means we must take action to adapt. The new reality we’ll need to get used to has a name – Resilience. And because impacts vary by region, it’s time we start talking about Regional Resilience as the key to climate change adaptation.

The engineer’s role

Designing our new clean energy future is both an urgent need and a compelling opportunity for leadership. And there’s a special role for engineers to play. As specialists in problem solving, engineers have the opportunity to take the initiative where nobody else will. For those who actually consider it, the principal challenge of climate change, beyond adapting to its impacts with regional resilience, remains mitigation – we simply have to stop carbon emissions. The Rule of Holes says, “When you find yourself in a hole, first thing you do is stop digging.”

More directly, we have to stop the extraction, production and distribution of fossil fuels…and we have to stop rapidly. But to rapidly decarbonize our economies and societies, we need new policies to support new systems and new infrastructure. As those in affected regions will tell you, life must go on, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges…we now have to do both. We have to decarbonize to mitigate climate change, even as we adapt to the impacts that are upon us. And we have to do all this more rapidly than ever before. It’s the mother of all challenges.

Resilience, “the ability to take a hit and get back up,” synonymous with toughness. The need for resilience manifests itself in different ways in different regions as the impacts of climate change become ever more evident. Beyond the recent wildfires and public safety power shutoffs hitting California, the Caribbean has experienced devastating hurricanes forever. But what have always been a seasonal challenge now in their more extreme form pose a more existential threat. The new reality of Category 5 monsters like Hurricane Maria challenges just about everything that defines modern life in Puerto Rico. With more frequent, more extreme storms, there’s not enough money to keep rebuilding the grid whenever it gets knocked over. We must contemplate what comes next. What could a resilient future look like?

Finding the answer to that question begins with understanding how two sectors that drive our economies – electricity and transportation – could transform rapidly by decarbonizing. Even though both industries developed over a century, steeped in paradigms oriented around fossil fuel combustion, we need a new set of essentials, a new paradigm in order to reset our design foundations and shift rapidly. The key to Rapid Regional Resilience lies in merging electricity and transportation into a single industry.

Designing this Transportation Electrification Transformation will help us to imagine how we can rapidly decarbonize and gain regional resilience – how we can blend mitigation and adaptation. Letting go of old ideas will make room for new, better ones. With clarity of purpose and vision, deliberate redesign can replace extending old paradigms and accidental incrementalism. We must avoid what slows us down and creates the sense of impossibility that confounds us.

What would a more deliberate redesign even look like? For starters, it would make innovation the foundation of any design plan. Incrementalism would be replaced with transformation. Engineers free to bypass inconvenient constraints would craft out-of-the-box solutions that integrate technological and business model innovation. Creative collaboration would lead to designing by leveraging each other’s best ideas, using concepts we already know, like Wisdom of Crowds, Iterative Design, The Fierce Urgency of Now and Feedback Loops. The genius of fast fail iterations is vital to going at the speed needed to match our challenges.

Tackling Regional Resilience at small scale in local towns and small islands will teach us all how we can begin a managed transition away from reliance on old systems. We can redesign or replace these systems built in an age where we didn’t have to think about decarbonization and resilience. We can be constructive by building new systems that fit our new imperatives. Our collective future depends on focusing on what we can build, rather than what we must give up, on what we can design, rather than what is seemingly impossible. Design based on creative collaboration and innovation will point the way forward to push past the inconceivable and impossible.

John Cooper is an energy entrepreneur and thought leader with 33 years of experience in a variety of pioneering roles and projects, and a nationally-recognized innovator in energy. Since 2017 and 2018, John has worked with innovative startups to accelerate DER penetration and carbon mitigation in cities, regions and countries. John co-founded REgrid.global in 2018 to provide a product solution to Transportation Electrification that provides multiple benefits to the utility, transportation and public sectors. John now serves as VP Business Development Americas for Tritium, a global leader in the rapidly growing DC fast charging industry.

Cool and super cool 3D printed projects

December 20, 2019 • 3D Printing, Alternative Energy, Automotive, Government/Defense, Materials & Assembly, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Here’s a look back at several cool hobbyist-level gadgets and a few super cool printed car projects.

The price of 3D printers has become reasonable enough to where hobbyist and businesses can own at least one machine. But once you’ve got it, what do you do with it? Engineers and techies will want to pursue DIY projects, repair machines and equipment, prototype their latest and greatest invention, or just have fun. All of these – but especially the latter – require a STL file and a 3D model. Here’s a very short list of places to get the coolest files for your 3D Printer (and many are free).

Thingiverse

One of the biggest content repositories for 3D printer models on the internet is Thingiverse – the site offers close to 2 million STL files. The website is operated by MakerBot Industries, the creators of the Replicator series of 3D printers. The Thingiverse community mostly share their STL files for free in varying categories and complexity.

Need a few gift ideas for the holiday? Try this imaginative bottle opener and cap gun, uploaded by 3Deddy via Thingiverse. Aside from the printed parts, all you’ll need are a set of M3 bolts, an elastic rubber band and a penny or 10 cent eruo coin.

Image Source: 3Deddy, via Thingiverse