Lean Canvas

One task given was to create a Lean Canvas based on our project. Revenue streams are a bit difficult to define at this point of the process.

Week 47 - Getting a hang of it

Past week was certainly a productive one, with loads of new ideas and visions.

The week started with our working session on Tuesday. The limited number of available work premises, our group migrated to a computer class at Lemminkäisenkatu for this session. We managed to create an idea tree around our project to focus on the most important aspects and ideas. Due to schedule related difficulties, the idea tree was our only finished task on Tuesday and rest of the due tasks were moved to Friday mornings study session.

We met on Friday morning at Lemminkäisenkatu. Our top priority was to create a mind map for our project. After some pondering about how to best execute the brainstorming session, we decided to progress with a simple method, where everyone would write down their idea on a piece of paper. The paper was then passed around through the whole group, and each member added their own opinions and ideas related to the initial idea. The resulting ideas turned out to be phenomenal, and gave us a plethora of new perspectives to our project. With the new ideas in mind, we also created a mood board around our core ideas.

Overall progress was steady, but there is still more to be done before our next PO meeting on the 30th of November.   

Mood Boarding

Here are the influences of our brainstroming presented with a moodboard.
Our topics revolved around decorative flower pottery, water filtration, 3D-printing and soil treatment.

Flower pot was though to be cast from LCA(Light Crushed Aggregate) be a nutrient source for the plant growing in it. The LCA releases nutrients over time to the soil contained in the pot.
The same concept with the nutrients would work if you spread granulated LCA into a farming field.

3D-printing is possible with liquid LCA if it were to be spread from a tube that has a nozzle.

Mind map & Idea tree 23.11.2018

We familiarized ourselves to idea tree on Tuesday 20.11.2018 and on Friday we made our mind map based on our brainstrom results.

Brainstorming session 23.11.2018

Our group held a brainstorming session concerning the project ideas and development.

Below are the results of our Triggered Brainwalking method.

PO meeting of week 46

First we talked about the Circular project which was waiting for the first soil batches from the harbour to be inspected and tested for toxins to specify which one needed to be adsorbed from it so the soil would be useable again. Valtter talked about Leeching and Emission spectrometer for such studies.

After quick brief on Circular project we moved to our project.

We agreed on the projects path that we would not take too big of a slice from the cake to swallow and define the projects path on that part (aggre cultural, soil treatment and possible 3D- Demo).

First laboratory tests for us will be measuring the pH increasing capabilities and phosphor adsorption. Even thought the last years student group did these studeis but Renotech requires the confirming test results from these test for this years batch too.

Physical capabilities will allso be tested on our part too unincluding temperature tests as those have already been done.

Toxin nullifying tests will include treating sulfuric acid contaminated soils as the possibility to treat it’s pH to neatral level again and make it farmable ground again.

For next time we agreed on seeing if the 3D- demo will be implented in our project too, when we are going to have the facilities tour in Raisio and our part was to get to know the research applications.

Peer groups’ blog reviews

We were assigned with a task to pick the most interesting findings from our peer groups’ blogs and explain the reasons why we picked them. We were given two peer groups, the first one being “Green coagulants & flocculants for water treatment (BK-Hydrometa Oy)” and the second one “Augmented reality for the process industry (Neste Engineering Solution Oy)”.

At this stage, there isn’t yet too much material to choose from in the blogs. The water treatment -group’s blog has two posts so far: the first one consists of the basic idea of the project and introduction of the members, and the second one is about the research articles task. The augmented reality -group’s blog has three posts: one from the first PO-meeting, one about the articles task as well, and one about this blog review assignment.  

In general, both of the blogs have a really nice layout, and they are very easy to use. The water treatment -blog is made with Blogger like ours, and the augmented reality -blog is made by WordPress. Both platforms seem to work well for this purpose.

Green coagulants & flocculants for water treatment

The water treatment -group’s project goal in their own words is to find and test efficient bio-based flocculants and biodegradable polymers for their project owner BK-Hydrometa Oy. Regarding the most interesting finding of the group at this point, it’s relevant to scrutinize their post about the research articles they’ve studied. The post includes summaries of two different articles, both examining the subject from a little bit different point of view.  

The first article is told to be about the municipal waste water pretreatment in Egypt, using coagulation and flocculation, in order to protect the environment and public health. It is also cleared out that the article’s research purpose is to find the optimum doses of the coagulants used – which in this case is stated to be 60mg/l of alum. The second article on the other hand, is explained to be concentrating on filtration methods of organic matter in water treatment, and it is told to be concluded in the study that palladium-zinc oxide nano wires provide more efficient photocatalytic reactions than plain zinc oxide nano wires.

Not knowing too much about the subject, both of these findings still sound interesting, and most likely somehow useful for the group’s project. Waste water treatment is an important matter, and the group seems to be well delved into what they are doing.  

Augmented reality for the process industry

The augmented reality -group’s blog doesn’t state very clearly the deeper purpose of their project. Under the blog’s heading, there is a subheading “Non-tactile Augmented Reality System for the process industry”, so it can be understood that the main idea is to develop some kind of an augmented reality system for their project owner, but the reasons behind that and the possible uses are not explained. However, as it was in the water treatment -case, it is also relevant in this case to take a look at the group’s findings from the articles they've researched, and through that look it becomes viable to understand the question why.   

The post is conducted of three articles, which are not exactly addressed at one by one but more like compiled together, to one easy-to-read text about the subject. The post starts by telling what is meant by AR and continues by highlighting the reasons behind the increased popularity of the technique, and the advantages and requirements of the use of it specifically in industrial environment. Lastly, AR is demonstrated through three YouTube-videos about the possible applications: HoloLens on Premset (Schneider Electric), Remote Maintenance with HoloLens (Fraunhofer) and IKEA Place (IKEA).

There isn’t really anything considered as “findings” in the post, but more like good basic information about the base for the project purpose. AR is a cool subject, and the project sounds exciting – must be interesting to work with this matter.

Three articles - an overview of the subject matter

Lightweight concrete using fly ash aggregate

Amongst the most important methods regarding global manufacturing nowadays is solid waste management. The study in this article looks towards utilizing waste as efficiently as possible, and at the same time turning it into some kind of a business. In this case, the utilization was done for constructive purposes, to make eco-friendly materials, in order to sustain the globe for a longer period of time.

There are countless studies and projects about this matter, but this particular one concentrates on how to utilize fly ash aggregate in concrete. During the project, the researchers made a survey, and from the results it can be seen that the fine coarse aggregate was completely replaced by the fly ash aggregate.

The researchers used ordinary Portland cement in the tests where the fly ash aggregates were mixed with cement and water. Mixing a test batch allowed studying and researching the chemical and physical properties of the fly ash concrete. Fly ash concretes’ crushing value and impact value were tested and compared to the traditional concrete.

Mixing proportions of the cement and fly ash were 15:85, 20:80 and 25:75, and the water content was 20 % of the total weight. With these proportions, a series of test blocks was casted, including concrete cubes, concrete cylinders and concrete beams. Also, compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of the fly ash aggregate concrete, on the different points of its life cycle, were tested. All in all, it can be concluded that in the future, fly ash aggregate has potential to evolve into the building material of tomorrow.

Conversion of fly ash into zeolite, to decontaminate water

Zeolite is an adsorbent material, obtained while adding sodium hydroxide to fly ash samples. The different composites already present in the fly ash, aluminium and silicon, mixed with sodium hydroxide are able to form zeolite by mechanic agitation.

Zeolite can be used to remove contaminants like heavy metals from water. Heavy metals like cadmium are present in the aquatic environment, and it has become important to remove them due to their toxicity and non-biodegradability. Moreover, cadmium can damage the kidneys and the livers of animals, and human body doesn’t have the homeostatic control for the metal. 

Thanks to this study, it has been shown that the use of zeolite is an efficient option to decontaminate water, and also a low-cost option compared to other ones. Sure thing is, synthesized zeolite has a better adsorption capacity than original fly ash and natural zeolite.

Achieving sustainability with lightweight aggregates

Lightweight aggregates can be considered as a more environmental-friendly option than the normal weight ones. Proven benefits are at least the 20-30% reduction in density, and up to 50% reduction in heat conductivity.

In construction, several studies have shown that for example the bridges built of lightweight aggregate materials have been as durable as the ones built of normal weight materials. Thinking about the sustainability part, these aggregates can be helpful in order to reduce the “heat island effect”. For instance, tar and gravel roofs are being replaced by greener solutions, and lightweight aggregates offer one option for the process.

Also, the production of lightweight aggregates tenders a way for sustainable disposing of hazardous waste. In addition, the surfaces of these kind of aggregates create a great base for the development of bacterial growth in municipal waste treatment, or in urban areas’ drainage flows.

Sources:

Rama Prasad, C.V.Siva. (2017) Light Weight Concrete using FlyAsh Aggregate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322050386_Light_Weight_Concrete_using_FlyAsh_Aggregate

Das, G; Pradhan, N.C; Madhu, G.M & Preetham, H.S. (2012) Removal of Cadmium from Aqueous Streams by Zeolite Synthesized from Fly Ash. http://www.jmaterenvironsci.com/Document/vol4/vol4_N3/51-JMES-352-2013-Gaurav.pdf

Remner, T.W; Ries, J.P & Wolfe, W.H. (2007) Achieving sustainability with lightweight aggregates. http://www.claisse.info/special%20papers/bremner_full_text.pdf

Week 46, A careful start

On Tuesday, we had a lecture about Lean canvas and after the lecture we started working on our tasks. We worked on our agreement forms, finished most of them and made a PowerPoint presentation for a possible pitch on Friday. We also researched the theme of our project and read some rather interesting articles about aggregate soil recovery, more details about our findings will be posted in in the blog later.

We had prepared for our meeting by reading some of the incredible big amount of information we received from the last project group. They had done a lot of lab tests on the product, but not all of them were successful. Their tests on the aggregate’s absorption of phosphor in water and the aggregate’s effect on the pH in water seemed successful and we will do similar tests, but we also thought of other things that could be tested, for instance, we are interested in the physical properties of the material. We would like to know what other elements the material can absorb, if it can be used as protection from leakages at fuel stations etc. and if the absorption of metallic's can be tested in a more reliable way. We have a lot to think about right now. However, on Friday, after the morning lectures where we listened to pitches, we had our PO meeting and they told us that they are mostly interested in the agricultural and soil treatment applications of the product, which makes it a lot easier to move forward. It means that we can focus mainly on the testing methods and what needs there are in the agricultural and soil treatment applications and do other tests if we have the time and resources for it. The memo of our PO meeting will also be posted in the blog.

After the PO meeting we worked on our lean canvas, which turned out great. In full this week’s work has been successful and we will start researching on test methods and plan and schedule the project until our next PO meeting in two weeks when we should get to see the real product. We are all very excited to start working on the testing!

Summary of PO meeting (9.11.2018)

The First meeting with the leading staff members of the project we are going to work started as usual. Every one was little bit nervous and waiting to hear what did Renotech have to offer for us and the backround information of the up coming project.

First was a quick introduction round where they told us who they were and what they did, followed up by us telling who were we and why did we chose this project. After they found out that allmost all of us were studying towards chemical engineering they told us that the main part of the project would focus towards laboratories and working on the adsorption part of light crushed aggregate soil.

Then they talked about the other project that they were involving in and how it was very similiar to our project. The other project is Circular Project which utilizes large land masses that are being dug up from the port of turku for construction purposes.  The circular project was conserning on cleaning these land masses from mercury and other hazardous materials and using for example the clay from the dug up material. But the real connection with our project and this one was the absorption of mercury as Renotech Oy wanted to link these projects in collaboration.

After this they therally introduced us to the project we were going to work (Light crushed aggregate soil recovery). First was a quick talk about possible forest fertilization. Next was the possible adsorbtion of the real hazardous materials such as the previously mentioned mercury but also CO2 and phosphor.

CO2 will be adsorbed as the material ages and this wil go as a carbondioxide- bank so to say.

Their material was close to the material ”Leca” with atleast 1% of fly ash implented into the recipe which adds the element of fighting against acids alot better.

They said that theu alreeady had a batch of 200m^2 as a pilot batch and we could use this.

The possible spray production and 3D-printing was discussed but they said that 3D-printing is a bit early statement of this material even though it takes very short time for the foam to harden.

We agreed on weekly meetings where we inform them about what has happened and what will happen on next week in proximatelly 20min meetings. They also said that they will provide us the reagents for the testing and firstly see their internal inventory before buying new stuff for tests.