business_spotlight_2014_no_02__

(Grace) #1
2/2014

association [E)sEUsi(eIS&n] Verband
axis[(ÄksIs](pl.axes [(Äksi:z]) Achse
beverage [(bevErIdZ] Getränk
carbonated [(kA:bEneItId] kohlensäurehaltig
desalination plant Entsalzungsanlage
[di:)sÄlI(neIS&n plA:nt]
fizzy [(fIzi] sprudelnd
potable water [)pEUtEb&l (wO:tE] Trinkwasser
slush [slVS] (Schnee-)Matsch; hier: Flüs-
sigkeit voller Kristalle
spin sth. [spIn] etw. schleudern
vortex [(vO:teks] Wirbel(strom)

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Ideas and inventions


Very cool!


W


hat do you do when you need a cold drink — fast? Ask
Kelvin Hall, head of Enviro-Cool, in London. His V-Tex
technology makes drinks ice-cold in less than a minute.
Usually, when beveragesare cooled too quickly, some of the
liquid freezes into slush. This can be avoided by shaking the bot-
tle or can, but that makes carbonateddrinks spray everywhere.
V-Tex technology holds drinks next to a cold source, then
spinsthem to create a vortex. This motion prevents the drink
from getting too fizzy. A stop-start rotational sequence collapses and recreates the vortex, which
speeds up cooling. Rotating the liquid around two axesimproves cooling even further because
it interrupts the vortex without stopping the spinning. Hall and his team have also developed
the optimum speed for various types of beverage and drink container. Replacing the large, open
commercial coolers in shops could save up to 80 per cent of the energy costs, says Hall. Con-
sumer tests will begin in a supermarket in the Netherlands in October.

medium

Gibt es Neuigkeiten? CAROLSCHEUNEMANNpräsentiert technische
Innovationen und neue wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse.

iStock (4)
Spun, not shaken:
cold V-Tex drinks

In the news


30 years
Length of a study
that shows people
who eat nuts daily
have a 20 per cent
lower rate of death from chronic diseases.
Source: Dr Ying Bao in The New England Journal
of Medicine (www.nejm.com)

NEIL
“Never Ending Image Learner” is a computer pro-
gram that is teaching itself to recognize images.
Sources: Carnegie Mellon University, http://www.neil-kb.com

88 million
Litres of potable waterproduced per day
by a solar-powered desalination plantto
be built in the United Arab Emirates.
Source: Utico Middle East
(www.uticome.com/site)

Fresh water in the UAE:
I’ll drink to that

Did you know?
By mid-2014, India is expected to have more internet
users than the United States, which
now has about 245 million.
First place is held by China,
with more than 590 million
people online.
Source: Internet and Mobile Associationof
India (www.iamai.in)

82 TechtrendsSHORTB1 2_14 16.01.14 15:47 Seite 82

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