You are browsing the archives of 2009 July.

Nanotechnology is poised to have a big impact in food and beverage packaging, according to a report published by IRAP.

A thin layer of nanoparticles is sufficient to change the properties of packaging materials without significant changes in density, transparency and processing characteristics. The addition of certain nanoparticles into shaped objects and films has been shown to render them light, fire-resistant and stronger in terms of mechanical and thermal performance, as well as less permeable to gases. IRAP says new packaging solutions will focus more on food safety by controlling microbial growth, delaying oxidation, improving tamper visibility and convenience.

According to the report, three basic categories of nanotechnology applications and functionalities appear to be in development for food packaging: improved plastic materials barriers; incorporation of active components that can deliver functional attributes beyond those of conventional active packaging; and materials that can sense and signal relevant information. Expect to see new food packaging materials with improved mechanical, barrier and antimicrobial properties, and nanosensors that can monitor and report on the condition of food during transport and storage.

According to Nano-Enabled Packaging for the Food and Beverage Industry – A Global Technology, Industry and Market Analysis, the total nano-enabled food and beverage packaging market in the year 2008 was $4.13 billion, which is expected to grow in 2009 to $4.21 billion and forecasted to grow to $7.30 billion by 2014, at a CAGR of 11.65%. Active technology represents the largest share of the market, and will continue to do so in 2014, with $4.35 billion in sales and the intelligent segment will grow to $2.47 billion sales.

Time/temperature indicators are a major share of intelligent packaging, with radio frequency identification data tags forecasted to show the strongest growth in this category in the future.

In food products, the bakery and meat products categories have attracted the most nanopackaging applications, and in beverages, carbonated drinks and bottled water dominate.

Among the regions, Asia/Pacific, in particular Japan, is the market leader in active nanoenabled packaging, with 45% of the current market, valued at $1.86 billion in 2008 and projected to grow to $3.43 billion by 2014, at a CAGR of 12.63%.

In the United States, Japan and Australia, active packagings are already being successfully applied to extend shelf-life while maintaining nutritional quality and ensuring microbiological safety. Examples of commercial applications include the use of oxygen scavengers for sliced processed meat, ready-to-eat meals and beer, the use of moisture absorbers for fresh meat, poultry and fresh fish, and ethylene-scavenging bags for packaging of fruit and vegetables.

Nanoclays have shown the broadest commercial viability due to their lower cost and their utility in common thermoplastics like polypropylene, thermoplastic polyolefin, PET, polyethylene, polystyrene and nylon.

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Highway 205 centerline in the Oregon high desert

Oregon is reportedly among the states that are looking at the spaces along their roads for renewable energy production.

A recent report in the New York Times‘ Green Inc. blog says that Oregon is doing a demonstration project involving a 104-kilowatt solar array that provides power for about one-third of the lights used at an interchange between two interstates.

The article adds that Massachusetts is working on its own plan for a large wind turbine on land near a turnpike rest area. Other states are looking at using abandoned industrial sites for clean energy generation.

Another detail in the effort to build more renewable energy on U.S. roadsides is reportedly the Green Roadway project, conceived by two inventors who working to develop what is called an “alternative energy roadway system” that could involve highways across the U.S.

With increasingly large and ambitious renewable energy projects being considered nationwide, one benefit for businesses and homeowners is likely to be falling prices for solar power, such as photovoltaic panels, and other clean energy technologies.

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Excavating at the Bandiagara Plateau, Dogon Country, Mali.

Archaeologists from Geneva University have discovered what they claim is Africa’s oldest ceramic, dated at around 9400 BCE, in eastern Mali. “It’s a tiny, ornate fragment that was made with great skill and the use of fire,” says ethno-archaeologist Anne Mayor. Mayor is part of an eight-person Swiss team in the country, comprising five scientists from Geneva and three from Fribourg, who are working with colleagues from Mali, Germany and France.

The find was made in the area of the Dogon people, whose main territory is bisected by the Bandiagara Escarpment, a sandstone cliff up to 500 meters high and which stretches for about 150 kilometers. Swiss archaeologists have been digging in the area for 20 years.

Currently, archaeologists are concentrating in Ounjougou, “a unique location with massive potential for discoveries,” according to Mayor. The aim of the project is to learn more about humans and the environment during the Palaeolithic Period. The first settlements in the region date from around a million years ago.

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T. Boone Pickens scrapped plans to build a $12 billion wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, even though he already spent $2 billion ordering 687 giant wind turbines, and $60 million promoting the plan.

The problem? The transmission lines can’t carry that much electricity.

That’s one of the dirty little secrets about wind power. It’s inconsistent. You have to design transmission lines that can carry a maximum load even though production reaches peak levels only about 10 percent of the time.

When the wind blows hard, they produce energy. When the wind doesn’t blow, they don’t. It’s the same problem with solar energy. When the sun is out, you get energy. When it’s cloudy (or night), you don’t.

Alternative energies like solar, wind and geothermal should play a growing role in our nation’s energy strategy. But realistically, it would take years for them to make a dent in our energy needs, particularly transportation, and power storage and power smoothing in one of the known hurdles. That’s why the DOE is investing projects that range from water-pumping/behind-dam systems, capacitor banks, and massive battery banks.

Pickens has a lot of common sense. Even though he hasn’t given up on wind energy, it’s nice to know that he won’t waste any more of his money on a project that just won’t work at this point.

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Carbo Ceramics relocates its headquarters

The company’s new offices are located at Energy Center II, 575 N. Dairy Ashford, Suite 300, Houston, Texas 77079. The company’s new phone number is (281) 921-6400. Sales and technical staff will remain in Irving, Texas to address the needs of locally based clients.

Heason wins order for French synchrotron nanoscale manipulator,

Heason Technology has won a £250,000 order from Synchrotron Soleil, the French national synchrotron facility and research laboratory, to design and manufacture a 14-axis nanoscale manipulator to position samples. The manipulator will position samples for soft X-ray scanning. This is part of a scanning photoemission microscope project called ANTARES that is designed to provide the global scientific community with the means to examine structures at the atomic level and will be of benefit to pioneering research in soft condensed matter in areas of interest, such as microelectronics and nanotechnology.

FEI offers new transmission electron microscope

FEI today announced the release of the Tecnai Osiris™ scanning/transmission electron microscope (S/TEM), delivering revolutionary analytical speed and performance. It includes FEI’s new ChemiSTEM technology, which reduces the time for large field-of-view elemental mapping from hours to minutes. The Tecnai Osiris is designed to combine this breakthrough analytical throughput with exceptional ease-of-use to meet the requirements for both high-volume industrial and multi-user research laboratories.

MV Products offers vacuum pump inlet traps for solar cell and LED manufacturing

A line of vacuum pump inlet traps for processes that create large volumes of solid byproducts such as those used in manufacturing solar cells and LEDs is available from MV Products of No. Billerica, Mass. MV Multi-Trap Vacuum Inlet Traps feature a knock-down stage with two stages of user-selectable filter elements including stainless steel gauze, 2-, 5-, and 20-micron polypropylene and polyester. Ideally suited for MOCVD, HVPE, PECVD or PVC processes used in manufacturing solar cells and LEDs, which generate high solids, these traps help reduce vacuum pump failures.

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