My Styrofoam + Limonene Experiment

After seeing Steve’s interesting post about dissolving polystyrene with limonene I knew I had to learn more!

I found this interesting tidbit about limonene at Wikipedia:

As the main odor constituent of citrus (plant family Rutaceae), d-limonene is used in food manufacturing as a flavoring, and added to cleaning products such as hand cleansers to give a lemon-orange fragrance. See: orange oil.

Limonene is increasingly being used as an environmentally friendly alternative to mineral oils as a solvent for cleaning purposes, such as the removal of oil from machine parts, being more easily biodegradable than mineral oils, and produced from a renewable source (citrus oil, as a byproduct of orange juice manufacture.) Limonene works as paint stripper when applied to painted wood. The (R)-enantiomer is also used as botanical insecticide.

The (S)-enantiomer, also known as l-limonene (CAS number 5989-54-8, EINECS number 227-815-6), is used as a fragrance in some cleaning products. In contrast to the citrus (orange-lemon) scent (see above) of d-limonene, the enantiomer l-limonene has a piney, turpentine-like odor.

Just for fun I decided to try a little experiment…

My wife has a small bottle of orange aromatherapy oil. Its pretty pungent stuff, so I figured it must contain some limonene.

I tried dripping some on a block of polystyrene to see what would happen. At first I was pretty disappointed – nothing seemed to happen. When I went back a couple minutes later however, I started seeing lots of tiny bubbles. A little while later there was a depression where the oil had been.

I tried it again and took some pictures:

As you can see in the pictures, it definitely works! I can only imagine what a more concentrated solution could do!

Obviously it might be a little impractical to spray down all your polystyrene packing materials with citrus oil, not to mention the fact that one would still need to do something with the resulting liquid!

Interesting stuff nevertheless!!

If you happen to be looking for citrus oil cleaning products, check out Kokopelli’s Green Market

Technorati Tags: citrus oil, limonene, polystyrene, styrofoam, recycling

Written by Bentley on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
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The Man In The Hole

Dan Price is a modern Hobbit…well he lives like one anyway! His home is literally a hole in the ground – and a small one at that!

I recently mentioned the fact that for most people, running off to live in the woods isn’t necessarily the most realistic or appealing route to sustainable living. Well in some ways it IS kinda cool when you can vicariously live through someone who has chosen to do so!

Dan has been living in his hole since the early nineties, after leaving a career in photojournalism.

Some quick facts about Dan:

• Pays only $100/yr for his little piece of land
• Wizwheelz gave him a $2000 trike – he built a garage for it made out of sticks
• Earns a living primarily by publishing The Moonlight Chronicles (and seems to be selling other stuff on his site as well)
• Aside from his tiny dwelling, he also has an equally tiny composting outhouse and sweat lodge.

To learn more, be sure to read this interesting article about Dan Price (and watch the video).

Technorati Tags: off the grid, hobbit, dan price, Wizwheelz, Moonlight Chronicles

Written by Bentley on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
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New Water-Efficient Green Roof System

Interesting release hot off the BusinessWire.com press…
Columbia Green Techologies Inc has just introduced its new Advanced Vegetative Roof System (AVRS™), which utilizes Zeba® moisture-release technology.

Although green roof construction has been popular in Europe for many years, its only just starting to catch on in the US – apparently the costs of installation and operation of roof irrigation systems (needed to keep vegetation alive during dry spells) have been prohibitive in the eyes of many.

Unlike many moisture-retention technologies (which rely on synthetic materials), the Zeba® system uses cornstarch granules to soak up and release water as needed by the plants.

The AVRS™ comes in the form of lightweight, “double-interlocking” trays which allow for easy assembly!

For the original release click here.

Technorati Tags: green roof, green building, Zeba, Cornstarch

Written by Bentley on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Green Construction and News.