New York City Begins Electrifying Its Garbage Truck Fleet
Apr 15, 2021
Operating at the fuel-guzzling range of 0-35 miles per hour, making continuous stops, and weighing many tons, diesel garbage trucks are prime candidates for an electrified makeover.
New York City Department of Sanitation have retrofitted 12 of their garbage trucks with hybrid-electric motors and batteries from a Canadian company called Effenco, whose technology can also be found in the cities of Paris and Los Angeles, in vehicles such as dumper trucks, port terminal tractors, and more.
Instead of lithium-ion batteries like those found in most EVs and hybrids, Effenco uses ultracapacitors. These propulsion systems operate not only the engines but the onboard equipment such as the garbage compressor.
Jan 18, 2021
Astrophysicists attempting to detect the presence of low-frequency gravitational waves are on to something, and it could be one of the biggest discoveries in the history of mankind.
Gravitational waves illustration, Tonia Klein
By collaboration from one side of the Earth to the other, a signal has appeared in the data of a project that uses the rhythm of stars’ movement to detect these truly gargantuan intergalactic waves, and the scientists think it may be proof of the gravitational wave background, a discovery more consequential than anything in recent history.
The researchers, hailing from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), are cautious, knowing that both the macro and micro aspects of their data could mislead them.