Archive for December, 2011

Industrial Ecology

The Practice of Ecological Industry – Changing the Paradigm One Industry At A Time…

What is industrial ecology?

Industrial Ecology (IE) focuses on combining perpetually desirable outcomes in environment, economy and technology sustainably. There is a whole discipline growing up out of this concept.

Here we apply IE as the practice of utilizing technology to economically effectuate environmentally sound industrial wastewater treatment. Not escaping us is the ironic fact that Integrated Engineers (IE) practices IE.

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Diesel vs Electric vs Hybrid Cars

When the glossy marketing techniques of the automobile companies make it so difficult to choose just one of the “perfect”, highly developed cars of the future, as they are presented to you in all those commercials, it’s more and more difficult to weigh your choice. Let’s see beyond the shiny coachwork, the comfy leather seats and the multi-tech car stereo and focus on the element that makes all the difference: the car’s engine! Diesel, electric or hybrid motor, now that is the big question?

The major advantages (and since during crisis the one that tends to outshine all the other advantages) of Diesel cars is fuel economy and therefore money saving. If we were to compare it with a vehicle with gasoline engine, we would see that the Diesel car needs far less fuel helping you, on a long term to recover the costs implied by its purchase. Another big pro, sustained by all Diesel cars owners, is driving performance, given by the fact that they deliver much more of their rated power than a petrol engine, givine you the chance to drive quicker from a stop sign, giving you a sensation similar to the one you have when driving a sports car. Still, there’s still a long road to take till technology and mechanics, working together, reach perfection. There are some big minuses, too, that Diesel cars have. The first major inconvenient about Diesel motors is given by its costs. They are more expensive than the gasoline engines, even though, as I have mentioned, those costs can be recovered by the money savings you will make in fuel buying. Another “handicap” would be their weight, since they have much higher compression ratios .Now, for the nature friendly drivers, Diesel’s emission of smelly smoke can be a real problem, not to mention that they are a lot noisier the gasoline engines.

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