RITI Coffee Printer Uses Your Coffee Grounds for Eco Ink!
by Evelyn Lee, 02/02/09
filed under: green gadgets, Greener Gadgets
For those of you who enjoy a cup of joe with your morning paper, the RITI Coffee printer offers an ingenious way to green your morning ritual: by turning your old coffee grounds into a sustainable source of ink for your printer! One of fifty top entries in this year’s Greener Gadgets Competition, the RITI printer takes the leftover grounds from your morning roast and plugs them into an ink cartridge to create an eco-friendly source of ink. Who would have ever guessed coffee stains could be so useful!
Hosted by Core77 and Inhabitat, this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition resulted in an incredible crop of innovative consumer electronics designs, and we’re excited to offer you the first scoop on some of our favorite designs! Jeon Hwan Ju’s RITI printer works by replacing environmentally un-friendly inkjet cartridges with the dregs from your daily coffee. Simply place used grounds in the ink case, insert a piece of paper, and move the ink case left and right to print text.
In addition to ridding the printing process of the ink cartridge (its most environmentally un-friendly throw-out), the RITI printer also requires a bit of human action to get things going, which eliminates the need for any really significant power source. This last part of the idea seems a bit impractical, but after all that coffee you are drinking, maybe you need some exercise to burn off your excess energy!? Not a coffee drinker? No worries, it works just as well with tea.
Production of Floral Dye from different flowers
Floral dye can be used as dyeing material for dyeing the Textile Fibre as well as making colorful powder.
In India a huge amount of flowers are cultivated & West Bengal is the 4th position to cultivate flowers after Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka & Tamilnadu. These flowers are used as decoration purposes or for offering to God. A survey report reveals that 40% of the total productions of flowers are unsold and wasted everyday which are thrown in water of river Ganga or dumped which also creates water pollution as well as environmental pollution. These wasted flowers can be used in various ways & we can get wealth from waste materials.
The various uses of these wasted flowers are:
a. Extraction of colourful dyes from these flowers and use it in textile Industry for dyeing purpose.
b. These colourful dye are used to making Herbal Gulal (Abiir).
c. The residual waste portion can be used as bio-fertilizers.
Colouful dye can be extracted from flowers for dyeing textile fibre. These floral dye are eco- friendly & it has no allergic action on skin like synthetic dye. Moreover the procedure is very cost-effective and depending on it small scale Industry as well as Large scale Industry can be set up. The laboratory & pilot plant work & is going on at Chemical Engineering department, Jadavpur University with collaboration with Moromi, a NGO of West Bengal. Beside this these colour can be used to making colourful herbal Gual which has no side effect on skin.
Dyeing of textiles mean giving them a colour which is of comparative permanence1,2,3. It implies that it should not be possible to wash the colour out easily in laundering, nor should it fade rapidly when exposed to light. Natural dyers in vogue during ancient days were Indigo for dark blue/ light blue, pomegranate vined for yellow/ brown/ green, lac for scarlet/ crimson/ purple, jackfruit heart wood for yellow/ green, majisha root for rust red, myrobalan for khaki/ green/ black Compound shades were also got by over dyeing of yarn with two colours or by cross weaving. These natural dyes were eco-friendly and more importantly non-carcinogenic, unlike the synthetic dyes in use now.
The discovery methods of synthesizing alizanin and indigo spelt the death knell of the indigenous industry. Due to the ease of application, bright shades obtained and the hard shell of the colonial rulers, hand weavers started to opt for synthetic dyes without a clear understanding of the using of these.
It is now suspected that many of the synthetic dyes are carcinogenic in nature and havoc in life systems. It’s ironic that Europe that initiated the advent of synthetic dyes in the first place woke up the dangers of these agents and turning down for a few members of these class, proven to be harmful to life forms.
Herbal dyes however produced from floral extracts are economical and solve the above problems. These herbal dyes are not toxic, no allergic to human health, easily available and more economical. Some natural sources for dye produce truly exquisite shades and economical to purchase than chemical dyes. Upto now most of the natural dyed textiles are imported from Third World Countries and India is still a major producer of it. Flowers of Mari-gold, China rose, Butterfly Pea, Bougainvillea, Cineraria, Alkanet etc have been extensively used for dyeing fabric.
How to Dye Fabric With Coffee
Changing its color is the fastest way to make an old piece of clothing new again. Items that were once favorites but that have become old and tired over time find new life and new importance in your wardrobe with a simple shift in color. You can change an item's color simply, easily and cheaply by using something you likely already have in your home. Coffee has made an excellent dye for decades. It works wonders on natural fiber fabrics to darken lighter-colored fabrics or to deepen the color of already tinted items.
Instructions
1. Prepare the Coffee Dye
o 1Brew a pot of coffee as you normally would.
o 2Choose a container that when filled with water will allow your item to float and doesn't require cramming the item into it in order to wet the entire item. The goal is even saturation and even color distribution. Fill the container with water.
o 3Mix the coffee into the water.
2. Test Swatch
o 1Conduct a swatch test. With coffee, this is important before dying your intended item so you can get a feel for how quickly the solution you've mixed will darken your fabric. Either cut a small piece of excess fabric from your item, or use a small amount of similar fabric.
o 2Wet the fabric swatch with clear water and then submerge it in the coffee dye solution. Keep the fabric moving so that no creases or folds form that will allow excess color to accumulate. Keep checking the swatch for color depth.
o 3Remove the item when you're satisfied with the color and rinse it in clear water until the water runs clean.
o 4Examine the swatch for color depth and consistency. Remember that the color will be lighter when the fabric is completely dry. Keeping this in mind, use the test swatch to determine if the fabric you want to dye will give you the result you want, and to decide approximately how long you will need to let it soak in order to achieve the right shade.
3. Dye Your Item
o 1Soak your item in clear water so that it is wet through.
o 2Shake the item out so that there are no folds or creases that might cause the coffee to absorb unevenly. Then submerge the item in the coffee dye.
o 3Pull the item every few minutes to check for color depth, and in between checks keep the item moving to encourage even color saturation.
o 4Remove the item from the dye and rinse in clear water until the water runs clean.
o 5Wring out the excess water.
DYECOO TEXTILE SYSTEMS
The textile industry is believed to be one of the biggest consumers of water. In conventional textile dyeing large amounts of water are used both in terms of intake of fresh water and disposal of waste water. On average an estimated 100 - 150 liter of water is needed to process 1 kg of textile material. Water is used as a solvent in many pretreatment and finishing processes, such as washing, scouring, bleaching and dyeing. Water scarcity and increased environmental awareness are world-wide concerns causing a sharp rise in prices for intake and disposal of water. New legislation will even endanger the continuity of textile dyeing companies in the near future.
Elimination of process-water and chemicals are a real breakthrough for the textile dyeing industry. DyeCoo Textile Systems designs and manufactures machines using carbon dioxide (CO2) for dyeing of textile-materials. It's a complete waterfree dyeing process with considerable lower operational costs compared to the conventional dyeing processes.
Advantages:
· Elimination of water consumption
· Elimination of wastewater discharges
· Wastewater treatment process eliminated
· Elimination of drying and dryer effluent
· Reduction in energy consumption
· Reduction in air emissions
· Reduction in dyeing time
· Surfactants and auxiliary chemicals in dyes eliminated
· Dye utilization is very high with very little residue dye. Unused dye can be recaptured
· Approximately 95% of used CO2 will be recycled
· Fewer redyes are required
· Color correction is easier compared to aqueous dyeing
CO2 DYEING
When carbon dioxide is heated to above 31ºC and pressurized to above 74 bar, it becomes, supercritical , a state of matter that can be seen as an expanded liquid, or a heavily compressed gas. Characteristic of a supercritical fluid is a high (liquid-like) density that enables dissolution of compounds. For dyeing in supercritical carbon dioxide, the CO2 is heated to 120ºC and pressurized to 250 bar. The CO2 penetrates synthetic fibres, thereby acting as a swelling agent during dyeing, i.e. enhancing the diffusion of dyes into the fibres. In other words, the glass transition temperature of the fibres is lowered by the penetration of the CO2 molecules into the polymer. This accelerates the process for polyester by a factor 2. Finally, the CO2 is able to transport the necessary heat from a heat exchanger to the fibres.
During the dyeing of polymer fibers, CO2 loaded with dyestuff penetrates deep into the pore and capillary structure of fibers. This deep penetration provides effective coloration of these materials which are intrinsically hydrophobic. The process of scouring, dyeing, rinsing, drying and removing the excess dye can be carried out in the same batch.
C02 DYES
Using supercritical fluid CO2 , polyester and other synthetics can be dyed with modified disperse dyes. The supercritical fluid CO2 causes the polymer fiber to swell allowing the disperse dye to easily diffuse within the polymer, penetrating the pore and capillary structure of the fibers. The viscosity of the dye solution is lower, making the circulation of the dye solutions easier and less energy intensive. This deep penetration provides effective coloration of polymers which are characteristically hydrophobic. Dyeing and removing excess dye are processes that are done in the same vessel. Residue dye is minimal and may be extracted and recycled.
Supercritical CO2 dyeing gives excellent results as far as dye levelness and shade development, and the physical properties of dyed yarns are equivalent or better to conventional methods.
Conventional textile dyeing is very water and energy intensive in pretreatment, dyeing, and post-treatment (drying). The supercritical CO2 process involves the use of less energy than conventional processes, resulting in a potential of up to 50% lower operating costs. At this moment the only overlap is in the pre-treatment process, which is essentially the same for both. Our type 2 dyeing machines will be able to avoid the pre-treatment step as well.
Together with our partner Triade Chemicals in the Netherlands we have a complete range of CO2 dyes available for our dyeing machines.
Advantages:
· Elimination of water consumption
· Elimination of wastewater discharges
· Wastewater treatment process eliminated
· Elimination of drying and dryer effluent
· Reduction in energy consumption
· Reduction in air emissions
· Reduction in dyeing time
· Surfactants and auxiliary chemicals in dyes eliminated
· Dye utilization is very high with very little residue dye. Unused dye can be recaptured
· Approximately 95% of used CO2 will be recycled
· Fewer redyes are required
· Color correction is easier compared to aqueous dyeing
New Fabric-Dyeing Technique Uses Fluid-State CO2, Not Water
A Dutch company has unveiled what it believes to be the first commercial dyeing machine to replace water with supercritical carbon dioxide—a pressurized form of the gas with unusual liquid-like properties. Heated up to 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressurized to 74 bar, CO2 takes on the characteristics of both a liquid and a gas, allowing for the dissolution of compounds such as dyes. For DyeCoo Textile System’s purposes, scCO2 is heated to 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressurized to 250 bar. Behaving as both a solvent and a solute, the supercharged carbon dioxide penetrates textile fibers and disperses the preloaded dyes without extra chemical agents.
LOAD OF GAS
Once the dyeing cycle is complete, the CO2 is gasified to recover the excess dye. Unburdened, the clean CO2 cycles back into the dyeing vessel for reuse, a maneuver that saves energy, water, and the heavy metals that comprise much of the toxic runoff into our planet’s polluted waterways, according to DyeCoo.
Once the excess dye is recovered, the clean CO2 cycles back into the vessel for reuse.
The process isn’t without its limitations, however. DyeCoo is currently only able to dye scoured (or prewashed) polyester fabric, although the company notes that it’s working on a version that will dye unscoured fabric, as well as reactive dyes for cellulosic textiles made from plants.
NO H2O
Netherlands-based designer Fioen van Balgooi, for one, was inspired. Determined to show her fellow designers the potential that this new dyeing technique holds, van Balgooi conceived of the “No H2O,” a drapey, cowl-neck blouse that eludes to the rippling effect of water.
Fioen van Balgooi’s “No H2O” is a drapey, cowl-neck blouse that eludes to the rippling effect of water.
Energie jeans
Energie jeans