Sensor networks – integrating urban operation into the city fabric

Living PlanIT's Sensor Network is a mission-critical solution set developed in conjunction with Living PlanIT's technology partners. It forms the eyes, ears, and fingers of a complex control and information system that will facilitate broad, pervasive, and continuous use of sensor data and intelligence, making buildings and cities more efficient and environmentally sensitive.

The Sensor Network collects, triggers, and manages data feeds from multiple sources to provide the core knowledge used to manage urban environments which benefit residents, visitors, builders, operators and service providers alike.

The Sensor Network is primarily focused on:

• Being able to fit sensors in an urban landscape in order to obtain high quantities of data
• Being able to efficiently transmit this data to the UOS™
• Being able to take local action on real-time events as needed

In turn, the UOS™ is able to:

• Coordinate and control events across the entire urban landscape
• Combine this information with data from outside
• Store historical information in huge quantities for query, reporting, mining and insight

Sensors will monitor properties such as ambient conditions, movement of people and traffic, and building and transportation system performance, amongst other features of a sustainable community. Use of "IP-addressable" sensors will enable both new and existing network infrastructure to be used creating richer, more energy and bandwidth efficient urban systems. The combination of the Sensor Networks with the UOS™ and related applications helps drive cost efficiency for the city operation and enhances lifestyle and experience for smart city inhabitants.

While monitoring and managing these processes, the primary functions are performed with great attention and focus on security and privacy.

Integrated Solution for Sustainable Waste Management

THE PROBLEM

The problem is the same everywhere: communities throw away billions of tons of household waste every year. Over 40% of waste ends up in landfills and its latent economic value is disregarded. Living PlanIT's solution provides a new management paradigm, by turning trash into high-value resources, saving carbon, and also educating communities.

At the core of this approach is the Waste-to-Resources system that integrates three cutting edge technologies that collectively recovers and makes productive use more than 80% of the waste currently going to landfill. This approach also delivers significant economic benefits to communities.

The Living PlanIT system which integrates three technologies enables the delivery of high-value outputs, through the production of raw materials, products, biofuels and renewable energy is well protected against competitor replication, but the design principles of modularity and scalability can be easily applied anywhere where communities and governments want to resolve waste issues. This approach represents a high value market.

The composition of landfill gases is roughly 50% CO2 and 50% methane. Landfills can be a major cause of climate change, with methane 23 times more damaging than CO2. 60% of green-house gases produced in the United States come from landfill, which releases toxic elements that contaminate water and soil to an extent that remains unknown.

Further, fossil fuel reserves are being depleted and new EU carbon taxes are likely to render 4 out of 5 economical cars uneconomical from 2012. This demonstrates the need for cleaner and cheaper sources of transport fuels.

Many current solutions require expensive installations to prevent contamination and to capture gases, or simply use incineration for waste and gases for the production of energy. In sum, existing waste treatment methods fail to manage waste as a valuable input for the sustainable creation of high-demand energy, resources and products.

THE SOLUTION

Living PlanIT's solution combines three technologies that convert waste into valuable resources. This integrated system can treat 80% of waste in landfills providing an ideal balance of economic and environmental benefits.

Advanced Anaerobic Digestion treats all bio-organic waste using enzymes, fermentation and distillation. This results in the production of bio-fuels, pharmaceutical products and bio-fertilizers, as well as solid residues and water that are useful input for other processes.

H2 Generation All aluminum scraps are combined with the water residues from AAD and heated at a low temperature to generate aluminum oxide and hydrogen.

Pyrolysis Petroleum-based waste and the solid residues from AAD are processed through the pyrolysis reactor to generate renewable electric energy.

BENEFITS

• Electricity – communities can satisfy around 9% of their own energy needs
• Butanol - Our solution synthesizes it from biodegradable waste. The market for bio-fuels is already well established in some countries - 96% of cars in Brazil are equipped with the flex technology. Unlike ethanol, butanol can be used directly in conventional motor engines, thereby having a direct and wider market access. Additionally, the calorific value of butanol is higher than the one of ethanol – whilst its volatility is lower. This makes it a safer and more efficient bio-fuel.
• Hydrogen - Often considered as the new energy vector. Hydrogen offers many advantages as a transport fuel as well as an energy source. As such, the market for hydrogen is growing. The main problem with hydrogen concerns its production, which is conventionally extremely energy and petrol intensive. In our case, its production is energy efficient and completely carbon-free.
• Aluminum oxide - Aluminum, aluminum oxide offers many applications such as refractory material, ceramics, and for its abrasive characteristics. Aluminum oxide also has a market in diverse industries, such as the health, chemical and electronics industries, especially for its properties as a catalyst and superconductivity.
• Biochar - is derived from the pyrolysis of biomass. Because of its porosity and carbon contents, biocharcoal acts as an excellent catalyzer of fertilizers when mixed with soils. It greatly improves soil fertility and crop yields. Biochar is a high value add product. Importantly, it is a natural product that promotes green agriculture. Biocharcoal can also be burnt to produce renewable energy.
• Bio-fertilizers - the overuse of chemical fertilizers is recognized as a threat to the environment (air, soil, water). Our bio-fertilizers have almost the same properties as chemical ones, but their production and impact are far more sustainable. They are directly useable in crops or in combination to some chemical fertilizers.
• Pharmaceuticals - Vitamins and amino acids can be extracted using the process in small quantities, but at a high retail value. Although more experimental, the extraction of these by-products is completely feasible and familiar to chemists.