Hello! We're team No Signal, from The Cube School. We are an after-school technology school group participating in this year's FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Competition (a not-for-profit, international competition whose goal is to inspire and introduce and students to the STEM field). https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll
This year's project challenge is City Shapers. Our team's project solution needs to address ways to improve our cities and build resilient communities. We focused on tackling CO2 emissions in our city. While researching, we found that over 40% of CO2 emissions originate from homes and buildings. Most citizens are unaware of this fact and there are few solutions in the market today to address this issue on a small scale.
About our project:
This year's project challenge is City Shapers. Our team's project solution needs to address ways to improve our cities and build resilient communities.
We focused on tackling CO2 emissions in our city. While researching, we found that over 40% of CO2 emissions originate from homes and buildings. Most citizens are unaware of this fact and there are few solutions in the market today to address this issue on a small scale.
We created the Green O2, an outdoor appliance meant to be connected to homeowners return vents and trap CO2 emissions; almost like an air purifier made to capture CO2 in residential homes. (Please see our pamphlet for more information.)
Problem Identification
According to statistics Canada, together, direct and indirect household emissions accounted for 46% of Canada's total Greenhouse Gas emissions in 2004. Overall, these emissions increased by 13% between 1990 and 2004, from 285,884 kt to 321,727 kt. And this rise in carbon pollution has increased even more in these recent years and shows no signs of stopping. Actually, it is increasing at an alarming rate.
Toronto Public Health estimates that because of this, air pollution in Toronto currently contributes to 1,300 premature deaths and 3,550 hospitalizations annually.
We need to find a way to reduce emissions in our city to be lead to a happier, healthier, and safer future. Our cities need us!
Our project Solution: The Green 02
The GREENO2 – an appliance designed to suck carbon from the air inside your home effectively using NETS (Negative Emissions Technologies). It is attached to homeowners’ return vent that is typically located on the side of the home, The GreenO2 Box resembles a standard box. It uses no power as it harvests the strength of the air vent being spilled out of the home and directs the air into the Green O2 Box, our research indicated that scientists at The University of Southern California developed an easy-to-make material that can scrub large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air, this solution is fumed silica, impregnated with polyethlenimine (which is a chemical compound that can capture CO2 from the air). These chemicals release CO2 when heated.
The walls inside our GreenO2 Box are covered in silica solution, so when the air is flowing through the box it allows the Silica solution to trap CO2.
We automated the capture of CO2 by including a CO2 sensor, once the walls are full of CO2 then the vacuum and heater are activated the Co2 is sucked in by a vacuum when the silica is heated inside the box chamber of our Green O2 Box Co2 is then put into a cartridge that will be delivered to companies that turn Co2 into products, like soap or pots. Once the cartridge is full the process will start all over again. Homeowners will effectively use NETS Negative Emissions Technologies.
Scientists from USC: George Olah, Surya Prakash and Alain Goeppert, as well as Miklos Czaun, Robert B. May and S. R. Narayananal Society in November 2012. The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in November 2012.
UTilizing NETS (Negative emission technology)
Negative Emission Technologies are meant to trap or capture CO2. According to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently estimated that to meet its climate targets, the world will need to remove as much as 10 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by mid-century. our box is trapping the CO2 which will later be converted into everyday objects.
Product Estimated Cost.
We shared our idea with our community!
The App
App goals:
# 1 COUNT AND REWARD: How much C02 you’ve reduced from when you first bought this product. This activates human achievement feeling.
#2 HEALTHY COMPETITION compares your progress to others who own the Green02. This motivates our competitive sides!
#3 LIVE DATA FEED The app shows you your C02 level. This keeps you up to date and helps you track your progress.
About First Lego League
The competition is composed of three-part segments: One is the Core Values demonstration (teamwork values). The second is on the robotics tables where participants solve series of challenges using autonomous robots we build and test. Lastly, we have to present a project solution as to how to solve a real-world problem. To learn more, visit www.firstinspires.org.
The Experts/Consultants
Mr. Andrew Woolard, Manager at Omnia AI, Deloitte Canada's Artificial Intelligence Practice, BA in Mechanical Engineer at the University of Toronto, Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Standford University; helped us by suggesting we “Gamify” our project. Which meant, making the app that creates competition with the GREENO2 owners in the community.
Mr. John Culligan, chemical engineer, helped us by taking time out of his workday to talk to us about the chemicals we would be using for our project. That let us determine if we had the right ones.
Ms. Yvonne Verlinden, Manager at The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT), She helped us with information on carbon emissions, including very important links, stats, and resources we could use to start our project.
Ms. Claire Neilscher, Project Manager for The Ryerson City Building Institute, told us what she believed were the biggest issues in Toronto, which started us on the path to creating the GREENO2.
Ms. Candice Leung, Project Coordinator at 8 80 Cities, Talked to us about our original idea, which was road safety, but some of the data she shared was still very useful for when we changed focus to carbon emissions.
Ms. Jennifer Jackson, Biology teacher at Monarch Park Collegiate, with a degree from University of Western Ontario, lent us a carbon sensor to measure levels of carbon in a room. She also asked us some questions that helped us make the best version of the GREEN O2.
Mr. Michael Chiu, Computer Science Engineer, University of Toronto. He suggested for use to use vertical blades for the air capture to minimize friction of the air entry and larger surface for capture of CO2.
Mr. Jeremy Francisco, Architect. He suggested to think about the insulation for our box to withstand cold/hot weather. He also suggested to check other products in the market like Clean O2.
Ms.Jessa Zavala, Aerospace Engineer at MDA, University of Toronto. She suggested to think about further filtration system inside our GreenO2 Box.
Mr. Jaeson Cardiff, CEO and Cofounder, Clean O2 & Ms Kathi Fischer, Co-Founder of Clean O2 , Chemical Technologist. Jaeson & Kathi have been a big supporter of our project since it was presented to them. The team at Clean O2 provided us with information regarding the utilization for CO2 for other products like soaps and detergents and they shared their system configuration with us. We even got soaps!
Ms. Christina Boghdady, Master’s candidate in chemical engineering at McGill University. He suggested that we add a layer Silica in the air intake to ensure there is no humidity in the chamber as this will compromise the absorption performance.
Mr. Doug Cleland, Manager, Engineering & Construction, Suncor Energy Products & Ms. Maureen Pellettier Sr Advisor, Sustainability Portfolio at Suncor Energy. The team at Suncor asked us to explore the mechanics of the furnace systems, in addition to think of ways to make our solution scalable to buildings or possibly to connect the system into several homes to make the collection efficient.
Mrs Alexia Yeo, Masters, Mechanical Engineer, University of Toronto. Senior Consultant | Digital & Emerging Technologies, Ernst & Young LLP. Alexia assisted the team in reviewing the solution and provided feedback and ideas for scalability and efficiency.
We shared our invention with our M.P. Nathaniel Erskine-Smith / Beaches-East York. Thank you for listening to our presentation!
www.thecubeschool.ca
Thank you Clean O2 for providing us with your expertise and all your support for our competition January 11!
Credits:
Created with an image by jarrd - "city skyline at night"