More gloomy news each week on the state of the UK economy and fate of manufacturing – as SME's 'shed jobs at the fastest rate since the early 1990s'. One of the few sectors showing growth both here in the UK and the US is the Green sector. A recent survey by the NVCA in the States showed that venture capitalists expect a fall of available capital in every sector except clean technology. In California green jobs have grown at a rate ten times faster than the States in total, and is strongest in Advanced Materials.
With investment in the environment, science and technology being given top billing by the Obama administration, investment in advanced green materials is going to be a must for any industry whether or not they traditionally see themselves in the green sector, and could prove to be an investment that may help to reverse the downward trend in manufacturing.
An area bursting with potential solutions for the green sector is biomimicry, design inspired by, or mimics, nature's forms, processes and systems. Nature has answered many of the innovation challenges we face today and often with constraints on resources, nature combines a handful of elements in the periodic table to make amazingly efficient structures at ambient temperatures, pressures and with benefit, rather than harm to the ecosystem.
Sharks, not traditionally associated with positive comparisons, may well have a hand in benefitting both the economy and environment, through biomimicry inspired innovation.
Car wrap manufacturer, Skinz, has developed a wrap which significantly reduces drag, and according to their own data, results in 18-20% improved fuel economy. The wrapper takes its inspiration from shark skin. If you’ve ever stroked a shark, you’ll have noticed that, like cats, it’s best to stroke them front to back. A back to front show of affection would duly result in shredded hands. It’s this arrangement of their outer skin the dentricles – that in part allows sharks move at the equivalent of 60 mph through the water with a minimum of drag. You’d think the smoother the surface the better the hydrodynamics, but the small interruptions the scales provide allow sharks to move through the water in a similar way to which dimples on golf balls give greater aerodynamic qualities. Speedo developed their Olympic swimwear using these principles reducing drag by up to 4%.
Norwegian fishermen turned the principle on its head and used the basking shark’s skin to increase drag and prevent slippage on deck.
Reducing drag has huge applications in many industries and in particular transport, where the potential to reduce both costs and environmental impact from emissions is sizeable. The US navy spends over $600 million a year fuelling their ships and submarines, $50 million of it could be snipped by reducing drag that results from biofouling, that is growth of creatures such as algae, barnacles, mussels on the ships’ hulls. Biocidal paints prevent attachment but are toxic and harmful to marine life, the same structure of the dentricles that allow for better hydrodynamics is also a poor host to the growth of extra marine life. Now several groups of researchers and engineers in the States and Germany have developed different solutions, from skins, to paint, to surfaces that mimic the structure of sharkskin.
"At the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Virginia, research to prevent biofouling is focused on biomimetics as well as chemistry and smart coatings.
"The ultimate solution is going to have to be a combination of things, maybe of topographies combined with some specific surface chemistry," says Dr Stephen McElvany, who manages environmental research projects at the ONR to develop nontoxic coatings for hulls."
Bigger savings are to be made in the airline industry too, and reducing drag has been the holy grail for many years. It's estimated that just a 1% reduction in drag is worth up to $200,000, and 25,000 gallons of fuel each year for just one airline, globally this would be worth around $1 billion pa, and a significant reduction in emissions. Dr. Amy Lang of University of Alabama, is researching whether the sharkskin structure could be applied to aircraft and result in up to 30% reduction in drag.
It will be interesting to see what new materials come out of these different pieces of research, and the potential applications they could have in other industries too.
