Anne’s Plumbing System Diagram

Accumulation: Toxin Collection

Just a brainstorm: crystallization and plumbing together…like Roche’s toxin removal via static electricity, a crystallization process could pull toxins from waste water or air and accumulate them somewhere.

Frost collecting on a shrub; Roche's Dusty Relief prototype.

On-site energy production from solid waste!

Water Purification: Eco Machines in a closed system

This system is somewhat akin to a massively scaled down version of the water supply and treatment cycle used in cities today.  As a closed waste treatment system, it could fit within a domestic setting. It’s also beautiful, and could be used as part of the garden.

Phase Change Materials: Liquid to Crystal and Back

“Researchers have identified a number of materials that meet most of the specifications. For example, paraffin compounds (linear crystalline alkyl hydrocarbons) are commercially available from petroleum refining or polymerization. Some manufacturers have demonstrated processes that successfully incorporate paraffin beads into wallboard. However, more research is needed before the technology can be marketed.

A private company, with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory, also developed another building envelope application. It tested an attic insulation that absorbs daytime heat, releasing it at night. The insulation consists of perlite embedded with hydrated calcium chloride. Perlite is a naturally occurring siliceous rock, that when heated to a suitable point in its softening range, it expands from four to twenty times its original volume. The resulting PCM, changes phases from solid to liquid at 82°F (28°C), at that point absorbing heat from a hot attic during the day, before it can penetrate into the home. When attic temperatures cool at night, the phase change material solidifies and releases heat back into the attic, moderating outdoor temperatures.”

Biological Crystals

“A collage of protein and virus crystals, many of which were grown on the U.S. Space Shuttle or Russian Space Station, Mir. The crystals include the proteins canavalin; mouse monoclonal antibody; a sweet protein, thaumatin; and a fungal protease. Viruses are represented here by crystals of turnip yellow mosaic virus and satellite tobacco mosaic virus. The crystals are photographed under polarized light (thus causing the colors) and range in size from a few hundred microns in edge length up to more than a millimeter. All the crystals are grown from aqueous solutions and are useful for X-ray diffraction analysis.” (Wikipedia)

Liquid Crystals

Liquid crystal has properties of both liquid and crystalline states: it flows like liquid, but its molecules are ordered in a crystalline way. The reordering of the molecules (phase change) can cause changes in appearance — this is the principle behind LC displays.