Dhangadhi turns waste into business, but faces growing challenges

ARPA-E, a Department of Energy program that provides high-risk grants to clean energy startups and universities, has leveraged $4 billion in government funding into $20 billion in additional private investment and 1,400+ patents. Companies like Fervo and Form Energy have advanced clean energy technologies using these grants.

Singapore uses wastewater recycling to generate what it calls NEWater to address the country’s water shortage. The government funded program involves processing waste water to filter out debris, bacteria, and viruses and using reverse osmosis to create water that is safe for drinking. NEWater currently meets 40% of the country’s water needs, mostly for industrial purposes, but a small portion is used for drinking, including a partnership with a local brewery that created NEWBrew, a beer made from recycled drinking water.

Companies and research initiatives around the world are developing and testing new toilets that can collect human urine and turn it into fertilizer. These urine diversion toilets have been implemented in places like South Africa with mixed results. However, researchers in Sweden are using portable toilets to gather the urine, dry it into fertilizer pellets that are then used to grow barley for beer. This work could show how to implement these kinds of toilets on a large scale.

After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, scientists are looking for ways to ensure the future of nuclear power is safer. One possibility is improving the protective barrier that surrounds the fuel pellets. They coated the fuel road with chromium and in tests, the new coatings performed well. However, modeling suggests that the chromium-coating might not provide enough time to stabilize a power plant during a meltdown. Still, these materials have started to appear in commercial nuclear reactors and could help reduce fuel waste and save money.

With a single tap, public health workers in Leeds can use a mobile app to record signs of loneliness in the city. Their observations generate a heat map of social isolation, which then guides community outreach efforts and increases efficiency.

Low-income people often miss out on court dates because they cannot afford to miss work or leave their children. Michigan and Ohio courts have incorporated the Matterhorn “online adjudication system” to handle simple cases so individuals can participate through the Internet. The system also offers the advantage of having “less bias” than in-person trials, because the race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status of the individual is protected online.

In many rural communities in India, access to clean drinking water is still scarce. The cost of bottled water is prohibitive, city pipes are in poor condition, and the municipal tanker trucks that supply some water are haphazard. But a social business called Sarvajal is busy scaling up a solution: a water ATM. These machines allow people to scan a pre-paid card and withdraw purified water from a stable, convenient source within their community when needed.

The water system in the United States is beginning to be in need of replacement. In order to facilitate this infrastructure project and prevent it from becoming overwhelming, technology such as water sensors and software are being used to monitor water usage and replace the pipes that are most dire as they degrade.

In light of climate change, New York State's Common Retirement Fund, the country's third-largest pension fund, decided to invest in a way that rewards companies with low carbon footprints.

Prescription drugs are greatly polluting the national water supply, causing researchers to begin looking for a method to better filter water and dispose of unused medicine.