By KRISTIN ROBERTS
Take a deeper look at the 3 R's of conservation, MagLab style:
Recycle
- Just like you do at home, our lab recycles paper, newspapers, books, magazines, plastic, aluminum cans and cardboard — about 22,000 pounds of it a year!
- With a 5,000 square foot, full-service machine shop on site, we also salvage about 7,500 pounds of scrap metal.
- We even recycle liquid helium whose super cold temperatures allow our powerful superconducting magnets to work. (Also check out how we store all of that helium!)
Reuse
- A 20-year-old, 16-tesla magnet found new life at the MagLab as a magnetic levitation apparatus within the cryogenics research group.
- Our Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility received an 800 MHz magnet from the University of Minnesota and coupled it with unique probes to provide a new experimental space for researchers from around the world.
Reduce
- One of the MagLab's newest magnets under development — the Series Connected Hybrid — uses a unique design that combines a set of Florida-Bitter resistive coils nested around a 1-mile cable-in-conduit superconducting coil to provide powerful fields of 36 tesla at one-third the power consumed by traditional magnets.
- Fundamental research on the electrochemical process of lithium batteries could ultimately lead to better batteries and changes in the way energy is stored and delivered.
- Scientists have developed a way to isolate emulsion-causing petroleum compounds, which could help lower energy costs for both oil companies and consumers.
- Alternative fuel vehicle and bike parking are available at the MagLab, encouraging staff and visiting scientists to make eco-friendly transportation choices.
- Researchers are using high magnetic fields to minimize the impact of oil spills, explore natural products as new energy alternatives, and better understand the effects of fracking.
- Within our headquarters facility, LED lights and motion sensors are replacing traditional bulbs, increasing the quality of light in a more energy efficient way.
- Using high magnetic fields, scientists are exploring superconducting materials that conduct electricity without any loss when kept at very cold temperatures (around -242 degrees Celsius). Research on superconductivity at higher temperatures could lead to smart electrical grids, power storage devices or magnetic levitation.
>Illustration by Caroline McNiel.