Technology Trending: data centres in space, smart home appliances, LNG tractor
Investigating the possibility of putting data centres into space, LG’s ThinQ UP smart home appliance global launch and ‘circular’ farming with onsite methanol production and use for powering tractors are in the week’s technology radar.
Shifting data centres into space
Data centres are growing rapidly in number around the world as digitalisation is becoming more and more pervasive, and presenting an increasing challenge for meeting their energy requirements and limiting their environmental footprint.
An alternative, now under investigation by a Thales Alenia Space led consortium with support from the European Commission, is to instal data centre stations in space, powered by on board large scale solar power.
The ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty) project is preparing a feasibility study on the concept, with its potential to help meet Europe’s Green Deal goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
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The first key objective is to assess if the carbon emissions from the production and launch of these space infrastructures would be significantly lower than the emissions generated by the standard ground-based data centres.
Then the second is to prove that it is possible to develop the required launch, deployment and operability solutions. A key here is the need for robotic assistance technologies, which already are under development with potential for a number of applications, such as the deployment of space-based solar PV for beaming to the earth.
Smart appliances global launch
LG’s ThinQ UP smart home appliances, available in South Korea since the start of 2022, are to be made available internationally starting in the USA from March 2023 and other markets thereafter, the company has announced
The range includes the standard home appliances, i.e. refrigerators, washers, dryers, oven ranges and dishwashers and are built on the concept of ‘Evolving with you’, according to LG.
What this means in practical terms is machine learning based operation of the appliances based on usage patterns but also the promise of software updates and hardware add-ons over time providing new energy saving and other options and conveniences.
“We will continue to offer sophisticated lifestyle solutions that provide personalised performance, convenient features and customisable upgradability,” promised Lyu Jae-cheol, president of LG Electronics Home Appliance & Air Solution Company, in a statement.
The appliances also offer the opportunity for enrolment in demand response programmes.
Circular farming with first LNG tractor
The New Holland T7 Methane Power LNG has been unveiled by the agriculture and construction business CNH Industrial as a pre-production prototype of what could become a widely used tractor in the future.
What makes it particularly noteworthy is that it is powered by methanol, which could be produced on the same farm, providing for an operation’s overall carbon footprint to be ‘better than zero’, according to the company.
In partnership with the UK-based methane capture specialist Bennamann, the solution uses its technology to capture methane emissions from livestock manure and repurpose them into liquefied methane for the tractor.
For farms that already produce their own biomethane a methane liquefaction unity can be simply ‘bolted’ on. Alternatively for farms that do not have the ability to produce LNG on site, Bennamann’s patented non-venting cryogenic storage tanks keep the methane as a liquid, from where it can be transported, similar to diesel, to wherever it is required.
Given the global warming potential of methane, its use in this process would reduce the direct emissions from slurry lagoons and tanks, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of an average dairy farm. According to CNH Industrial the potential CO2 reduction for a 120-cow farm could be potentially equivalent to around 100 western households.
