Because of the environmental issues such as global warming due to CO2 emission, we need to introduce renewable energy in our daily life in order to reduce the damage to the earth. On the other hand, renewable energy has not been sufficiently introduced in Japan even though we have huge resources such as wind, geothermal energy and so on. In our research project, our team has investigated the efficiency when we introduce renewable energy in our daily life, where we focused on solar energy, biomass and geothermal energy and quantitatively evaluated the efficiency. We first investigated the renewable energy which we could introduce in our daily life, and the energy consumption of a typical house in Sendai. Then, we assumed to introduce Photovoltaic power generation panel, biomass stove and geothermal heat pump system in the house, and calculated the environmental effect and economic effect when we use the renewable energy system. In this presentation, we report the results of investigation when we introduce Photovoltaic power generation panel, biomass stove and geothermal heat pump system in the house around Sendai, and show the feasibility of introduction of renewable energy.

Water contamination is becoming a worldwide issue due to the introduction of waste materials such as pharmaceuticals and fertilizers into water systems. This cooperation Clean Water project with another team aims to quantify a certain microalgae’s (Scenedesmus obliquus) effectiveness in absorbing nutrients and selected pharmaceuticals to see whether it can be potentially used for wastewater treatments. The overall goal is to grow some microalgae samples that mixed with different kinds of nutrients or pharmaceuticals and regularly delivery the samples to the other corporation team that takes charge of measuring the concentrations of nutrients and pharmaceuticals. In the experiments, tools like the filter, the Coulter Counter and a tent that can controls the environmental conditions such as temperature and light are used. The conclusion of this project is that Scendesmus obliquus works well in the absorption of nutrients like phosphates, nitrates and sulfates and it is a good candidate for tertiary treatment of waste water. In the long term, this project can be applied to create a filter system for a larger scale growth facility.

Contaminated soils and waters pose a major environmental problem, which may be solved by the emerging phytoremediation technology using plants. The goal of this study is to understand mechanisms and characteristics of the treatment wetland system which is a water purification system using plants. Mini-scale treatment wetland system with three different conditions, surface flow, horizontal flow and vertical flow system were constructed. Vertical and horizontal flow wetland system consisted with sand filter layer and surface flow wetland system without sand filter layer were constructed. By coupling two of these three different flow wetland systems, four kinds of two stage treatment system were constructed. Water purification performance of such two stage treatment system was compared by water purification experiment using two model domestic wastewater, containing detergent or soup. Cooking oil, residual from rice washing and ammonia were also contained in the model wastewater as common components. Four kinds of two stage system were used for purification of soup wastewater and three kinds were for detergent wastewater. The water purification experiment by these seven systems was continued for five weeks and the water purification performance was evaluated based on three water quality items, chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen (total nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen) and anion surfactant. The difference in water purification performance was appeared not only by the systems, but also by wastewater used. The mechanism of water purification by treatment wetland systems will be discussed based on the results obtained.

Emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals in wastewater have become a great concern in recent years because of their impacts on ecosystems. While this is a great concern per se wastewater management programs, notably water reuse technologies allow wastewater to be recycled. Potentially, this can lead to a great increase of the levels of pharmaceuticals in recycled water. Because of this, it is imperative to learn what the possible effects of these pharmaceuticals are and how these species can be removed from the water safely and efficiently. In this study, we will focus on whether or not algae could be used to remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater. A total of 6 representative pharmaceuticals (iopromide, acetaminophen, atenolol, dicofenac, caffeine and carbamezepine) were used for this study. Overall, this study has shown that algae are not an effective way to remove most of the pharmaceuticals tested. However, algae were effective in removing iopromide and have potential to be used in the future at wastewater treatment tests. The reason that algae may have been able to degrade iopromide rather than the other pharmaceuticals is because of its chemical structure of an iodide group, a hydroxy group, and an ether group. None of the other pharmaceuticals tested contained these groups. This may have made degrading iopromide easier for the algae. This study provides a new approach for the removal of pharmaceuticals.

Semiconductor LSI chips are used in almost any scene of the today’s human society. It’s no exaggeration in saying that our life style highly relies on the Semiconductor LSI. However, not many people know the roles of the Semiconductor LSI chips and reason why they are so spread out. It’s because the chips are so tiny and hidden deep inside of the electrical goods. Or, even though one finds a chip, it looks just like a “black box”. The target of this collaboration course between the University of Washington and the Tohoku University is to understand the basic key elements of LSI chips, their working principle and roles through conducting a series of lab experiments. Students at the Tohoku University side first dismantled the black box that covers the widely used LSI chip, “series 74”. They observed the surface of the LSI chip taken out from the black box with a microscope. Then, circuit patterns were carefully traced and copied using a transparent sheet to learn about the function and fabrication process of the LSI chip. A circuit board containing various electrical components was made by the students in order to operate the LSI chip. Finally the students operated the LSI chip with various electrical signals and verified how it works, and learned where LSI chips are embedded in the electrical goods and how they operate in the system.

A single chip integrated circuit was developed to perform the function of an infrared remote control for use in home entertainment systems. The only external parts would be a battery, keyboard, and infrared LED. The design was created in a 0.25 micron CMOS process to produce a low-cost device for mass market applications. The design implemented the Philips RC5 standard infrared protocol for use with a DVD player. The design process included the development of the product specifications, the division of the system into circuit modules, the design of each module and its layout on the final IC, and the final system integration and wiring on chip. While this is a small chip, it illustrates most of the steps that are involved in the development of a much larger digital integrated circuit.

Japanese lacquer -known as Urushi- is a natural material obtained from the sap of the lacquer tree. In the past, people lacquered cups and yoroi -Japanese armor- because they have a high hardness good waterproofness and shock proof. Now a day, Urishi is used as coating film for cars because it has a good chemical resistance. Urushi is left to dry for a long time or heat treated at a high temperature for a short time. It causes an increment in the hardness of lacquer. However, we do not know what temperature is the best for drying. Our purpose is to investigate the effect of heat treatment and substrates on the hardness and surface roughness of Urushi, and seek great possibility of Urushi. We coated Urushi on metal substrates (stainless steel and Cu). The samples were heat treated at 200°C for 1h, 300°C for 10min and 400°C for 5min. Thickness of samples were measured by using electric micrometer. Hardness was measured by nano-indentation test and surface roughness was observed by AFM (Atomic Force Microscope). Adhesion of between Urushi and metal substrate was evaluated by tape test followed by JIS K 5400. In order to evaluate the corrosion resistance of Urushi, two drops of 95% sulfuric acid were placed on samples and they had left for 11 days. We found that Urushi gets hard when it was heat treated at high temperature. And the hardness of Urushi increased with increasing heat treatment temperature without the associated loss in adhesion against metal. An excellent adhesion was obtained except for Urushi on stainless steel treated at 200°C. The results suggested that a high dry temperature is required to obtain a good adhesion. In corrosion resistance test, Urushi showed a good corrosion resistance in all heat-treated sample.

Ceramic coatings are widely used to provide protection for a variety of materials against chemical attacks, for instance, severe acidic corrosion of metals. Polymer derived ceramics is a novel method of making such kind of nm to µm-thick coatings, which utilizes preceramic (Si-based) polymers to yield inorganic ceramic materials such as SiO₂, Si₃N₄, SiCO, SiCN, on pyrolysis (high temperature heat treatment). The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of a polymer-derived ceramic coating, SiO_xN_y converted from perhydropolysilazane (PHPS), on copper and stainless steel substrates. Each metal sample was first polished up to 1200 grit in order to create a low roughness surface, then dip-coated and pyrolyzed at various temperatures (200C, 400C, 600C, 800C) to convert the polymer coating to dense, well bonded (to the substrate) and crack-free ceramic, which stays amorphous even at 800C. The coatings were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscope (AFM) and nanoindentation. The microstructure and surface morphology of the coating samples were examined using both optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the pyrolysis of PHPS coating reaches completion at 800C and SiO_xN_y coatings exhibit excellent corrosion resistance with no obvious weight loss or structural degradation. The corrosion resistance of these coatings was compared with coatings made from Japanese lacquer by our complementary team at Tohoku University in Japan.

Metallic materials are deeply related to daily life, and it is an important material for human beings. However, many kinds of the metallic materials have a serious problem, namely “corrosion”. The corrosion causes not only economical loss but also the decrease in safety and reliability for many materials and components. Especially, decreasing thickness of corroded parts can lead serious accidents, such as strength reduction, formation of cracking, and leakage etc. The aim of this study is to understand the mechanism of corrosion by Evans drop experiments and Raman spectroscopy analysis. The progress of the corrosion involves the formation of local cells at local regions. The local cell phenomenon is actually observed, and the information of the local cell can be measured by some surface analysis equipments. The Evans drop experiment is one of the classic experiments in corrosion science, and it evaluates the local anodes and cathodes due to formation of oxygen concentration. A drop of 0.4N NaCl solution with small additions of phenolphthalein and potassium ferricyanide was placed on a pure iron or a carbon steel sheet. After several minutes, a large anode in the center of the drop surrounded by a ring of rust, and a large cathode were observed based on the color changes of the solution. The Raman experiment is a way to inspect chemical compounds of the materials by irradiating and inspecting the wavelength of the reflection. For the evaluation of the corrosion behavior of the Evans drop experiments, the Raman spectroscopy analysis has been used. From the results, it was concluded that the carbon steel is easier to corrode than the pure iron.