The Clean technologies are those technological practices that try to minimize the environmental impact that is normally generated in all human activity. This set of technological practices encompasses various human activities, energy generation, construction and the most varied industrial processes..
The common factor that unites them is their objective of protecting the environment and optimizing the natural resources used. However, clean technologies have not been completely efficient in stopping the environmental damage caused by human economic activities..
As examples of areas in which clean technologies have impacted, we can mention the following:
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The current economic development model has produced serious damage to the environment. Technological innovations called "clean technologies", which produce less environmental impact, appear as hopeful alternatives to make economic development compatible with the preservation of the environment.
The development of the clean technologies sector was born at the beginning of the year 2000 and continues to boom during the first decade of the millennium until today. Clean technologies constitute a revolution or change of model in technology and environmental management.
Clean technologies pursue the following objectives:
Clean technologies are characterized by being innovative and focusing on the sustainability of human activities, pursuing the preservation of natural resources (energy and water, among others) and optimizing their use.
These innovations seek to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, the main causes of global warming. Therefore, it can be said that they have a very important role in mitigating and adapting to global climate change..
Clean technologies include a wide range of environmental technologies such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, new materials, among others..
Clean technologies can be classified according to their fields of action as follows:
There is a great deal of current interest in the analysis of production processes and their adaptation to these new, more environmentally friendly technologies..
For this, it must be evaluated whether the clean technologies developed are sufficiently effective and reliable in solving environmental problems..
The transformation from conventional technologies to clean technologies also presents several obstacles and difficulties, such as:
Among the clean technologies applied to energy production are the following:
Solar energy is the energy that comes from the radiation of the sun on planet Earth. This energy has been used by man since ancient times, with primitive rudimentary technologies that have evolved into the so-called clean technologies, which are increasingly sophisticated..
At present, the light and heat of the sun are used, through different capture, conversion and distribution technologies..
There are devices to capture solar energy such as photovoltaic cells or solar panels, where the energy from sunlight produces electricity, and heat collectors called heliostats or solar collectors. These two types of devices constitute the foundation of the so-called “active solar technologies”.
In contrast, "passive solar technologies" refer to techniques of architecture and construction of houses and workplaces, where the most favorable orientation for maximum solar irradiation, materials that absorb or emit heat according to the climate of the place and / or are studied. or that allow dispersion or entry of light and interior spaces with natural ventilation.
These techniques favor a saving of electrical energy for air conditioning (cooling or heating air conditioning).
Wind energy is the energy that takes advantage of the force of the movement of the wind; this energy can be converted into electrical energy with the use of generator turbines.
The word "aeolian" comes from the Greek word Aeolus, name of the god of the winds in Greek mythology.
Wind energy is used by means of devices called wind turbines in wind farms. Wind turbines have blades that move with the wind, connected to turbines that produce electricity and then to networks that distribute it.
Wind farms produce cheaper electricity than that generated by conventional technologies, based on the burning of fossil fuels, and there are also small wind turbines that are useful in remote areas that do not have connection to electricity distribution networks..
Currently, offshore wind farms are being developed, where the wind energy is more intense and constant but maintenance costs are higher..
Winds are approximately predictable and stable events during the year in a certain place on the planet, although they also present important variations, which is why they can only be used as a supplementary energy source, as a backup, to conventional energies..
Geothermal energy is a type of clean, renewable energy that uses the heat from the interior of the Earth; This heat is transmitted through rocks and water, and can be used to generate electricity.
The word geothermal comes from the Greek "geo": Earth and "thermos": heat.
The interior of the planet has a high temperature that increases with depth. In the subsoil there are deep subterranean waters called phreatic waters; these waters heat up and rise to the surface as hot springs or geysers in some places.
Currently there are techniques for locating, drilling and pumping these hot waters, which facilitate the use of geothermal energy in different locations on the planet..
Tidal energy takes advantage of the kinetic or movement energy of the sea's tides. Wave energy (also called wave energy), uses the energy of the movement of the waves of the sea to generate electricity.
Hydraulic energy is generated from the water of rivers, streams and waterfalls or freshwater waterfalls. For its generation, dams are built where the kinetic energy of water is used, and through turbines this is transformed into electricity.
Devices have been manufactured that produce direct current by shooting electrons through carbon nanotubes (very small carbon fibers).
This type of device called "thermopower" can supply the same amount of electrical energy as a common lithium battery, being one hundred times smaller.
They are tiles that work like solar panels, made of thin cells of copper, indium, gallium and selenium. Solar roof tiles, unlike solar panels, do not require large open spaces for the construction of solar parks.
This new technology has been devised by an Israeli company; takes advantage of solar energy by collecting radiation with curved mirrors, whose efficiency is five times greater than that of conventional solar panels.
The activities of agriculture, livestock, industry, construction and urban planning have occupied and degraded a large part of the planet's soils. A solution to the shortage of productive soils are the so-called vertical farms.
Vertical farms in urban and industrial areas provide cultivation areas without the use or degradation of soils. Additionally, they are vegetation zones that consume COtwo -known greenhouse gas- and produce oxygen through photosynthesis.
This type of hydroponic cultivation in rotating rows, one row on top of the other, allows adequate solar irradiation for each plant and savings in the amount of water used..
They are engines that have zero greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide COtwo, sulfur dioxide SOtwo, nitrogen oxide NO, and therefore do not contribute to global warming of the planet.
No mercury content, very toxic liquid metal and polluting the environment.
Made with materials that do not include tin, a metal that is an environmental pollutant.
Water purification using microorganisms such as bacteria.
With composting of organic waste and recycling of paper, glass, plastics and metals.
In which the entry of light is self-regulating, allowing energy savings and control of the interior temperature of the rooms.
These are genetically engineered and grow on waste oil.
They are manufactured with nanomaterials (materials presented in very small dimensions, such as very fine powders) that quickly and efficiently absorb sunlight.
Includes the remediation (decontamination) of surface waters, deep waters, industrial sludge and soils, contaminated with metals, agrochemicals or petroleum waste and its derivatives, through biological treatments with microorganisms.
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