Working on the ‘Greening’ of America--and the Economy : Technology: Local industries speculate on innovative products that will produce a profit in an eco-friendly world.
Given the state of the economy these days, corporate executives are more likely than usual to dread environmental laws: more inspections to pass, paperwork to fill out, fees to pay.
But to a handful of South Bay engineers, inventors and corporate visionaries, stringent “green” regulations will help create an eco-friendly world of fuel-cell powered cars, lemon-juice cleaners or even domed cities of the future. The payoff: a way out of the region’s economic trough.
They pitched their dreams this week at a hearing on eco-technology at the Torrance Civic Center. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) organized the event to gather testimony on pending federal legislation that could spur development of green products, either by granting tax incentives or government loans, or by changing existing laws.
“The government can create a market pull if it is a purchaser of goods and through the development of sensible regulations,” Harman said. Rohrabacher’s take on green tech: “The first thing government can do is do no harm.”
Much of the attention at the hearing was paid to products that have emerged--some in the South Bay--since the adoption of more stringent clean air or recycling laws.
Allied Signal Aerospace in Torrance, for instance, has been developing fuel cells to power motor vehicles. The cells convert chemical energy--such as hydrogen and oxygen--without combustion, reducing harmful emissions almost to zero. The cells already are being used by public utilities to power buildings.
The company has been pushing for a greater federal investment in the technology, which has the potential of powering 500,000 cars in the United States 10 years from now, Allied Signal engineers say.
The cells “can spark an industrial rebirth and revolution,” said Gorik Hossepian, space systems engineer at Allied Signal. “The scarce resources of the federal government and industry must be directed by a concerted effort to provide a technology push.”
If fuel cells don’t fly, there’s always natural gas.
Just outside a Torrance Civic Center meeting room, the Southern California Gas Co. displayed a GMC pickup truck powered by the vapor. The gas company is trying to get a leg up on reformulated gasoline, diesel and propane as the cleaner emission of choice.
The company has developed natural gas fueling stations to serve about 1,700 natural gas vehicles expected on Southern California roads by next year. By the end of the decade, the gas company estimates, Southern California’s natural gas car population will reach 443,200 vehicles, requiring more than 1,300 fueling stations.
“If domestic supplies of natural gas were used as vehicle fuel (instead of) liquid fuels, this would have a significant impact on our import/export deficit,” said Herbert F. Burnett, the company’s operations manager for natural gas fuels.
Hughes Aircraft Co., however, is taking a different tack in the smog-busting market. It has developed a remote sensor that detects pollution-prone vehicles. The company, while investing in the production of power controls for electric cars, pickup trucks and buses, sees a strong market for its Smog Dog, which would enable regulators to identify the exhaust-belching vehicles and get them off the road.
“It could be a real alternative (to help cut emissions),” said Renzo Venturo, corporate director of safety, health and environmental affairs for Hughes. “You’re talking about 3% to 4% of the vehicles creating 50% of the pollution. We’re approaching it from a different direction.”
The sensor, developed at the company’s Santa Barbara Research Center, measures emissions as they pass by, and also takes a video snapshot of the rear license plate.
Another Hughes product grew out of the need to cut the use of cleaning solvents that emit chlorofluorocarbons, which have been found to harm Earth’s ozone layer. Hughes also hopes to market new industrial products that cut emissions from cleaning solvents. Among its innovations: an environmentally safe liquid to clean metal before soldering.
“It’s a very simple idea,” said Dr. Alex Sharpe, corporate manager for environmental technology and operations for Hughes. “It’s a water-based chemical with citric acid. Lemon juice.”
Such simplicity also went into the creation of Gridcore, lightweight building materials made from trash, including recycled wood, paper and plastics. The product, a honeycomb of the fibrous recycled materials, can replace plywood and already has been used to construct movie sets.
Noble Franklin, a Carlsbad company, has licensed rights to the product and plans to start production at a Long Beach plant this year.
“This is kitchen trash from San Diego households,” company President Robert Noble said as he held up a piece of lumber. His product, he hopes, will be used in all types of products, from homes to furniture to surfboards.
Even more visionary were some of the product ideas being advanced by Temcor, a Carson-based manufacturer of Crystogons and geodesic domes. The company has long pitched its products as solar-efficient coverings for amusement parks, shopping malls and swimming pools. Now the company is proposing a new function: a domed water desalination plant.
“The idea is not complicated in a way that we’re dealing with quantum mechanics,” said Gary W. Vincent, an inventor who holds a patent on the dome and its working with Temcor to start a pilot project at a proposed Saudi Arabian amusement park. “It’s condensation and evaporation.”
The Solar Distillation Dome, as it is officially called, also could be used to clean pollutants from water, among other uses, he said.
Vincent envisions another project that would make the late R. Buckminster Fuller proud: an entire city under a dome, a possibility already raised by Japanese entrepreneurs.
“So far, it’s just somebody’s idea,” he said. “But it captured my imagination.”
