Executive Summary:  

The  objective of this proposal was to portray our product, along with its purpose and its effectiveness.  To propose this product, our team conducted an experiment in two different ways to carry out the procedure. While the first one proved the product to provide cooling, the second method aided in providing results for both cooling and heating.  The results displayed strong positive correlation between both the methods and gave us an insight of the various useful properties of our product. Our proposal also suggested that the problem of overlayering and the energy expenditure could be eliminated to a certain extent, if the product were to launch in the market in the next month. With the help of the management plan, our team was able to track the time and cost of providing this product at the lowest possible price, keeping in mind, the role played by other factors including labor, equipment etc, and the budget was kept as low as possible in order to receive funds from sponsors and other international companies interested in our project and wish to collaborate with us.  Being an energy efficient product, it would act as a vital source of energy conserver and hence, would provide the basic necessities in an environmental friendly manner.

 

Introduction:

Necessity is the mother of invention’.  To a large extent, this quote holds its value even today, as it is this drive force which makes us innovate this generation.  One of these innovations has been observed in the textiles industry. This industry has come a long way since its beginning with cotton, rayon and wool of the past (.  Many big companies such as Nano-Tex, use nanotechnology as a resource to make wrinkle and stain – resistant fabrics, hence enhancing the quality of the clothing produced in the world today (Nanotech, 2).  Other companies such as Nike, Adidas and Brooks brothers also use nanotechnology to treat high – end clothing (Adidas launches climachill apparel, 2).  Now the question is What if there was a way to be able to adjust to the climate without changing your clothes?  What if the clothes you wore were able to provide both heating and cooling? This is what our company has strived to achieve. Our products have the ability to manipulate the temperature of the fabric that is worn. Recently, our team designed its first nanotech product, which when brought in use, will save millions of lives.  But before that, you need to see what problems will our product address? Have a look.      

 

Statement of the problem:

1) Affordability:  

Based on death certificate data from 2006-10, the report’s authors found that “about 2,000 U.S. residents died each year from weather-related causes of death.” (Rice, 2018) The CDC report found that 63% of these deaths were attributed to exposure to excessive natural cold, hypothermia or both, while about 31% of these deaths were attributed to exposure to excessive natural heat, heat stroke, sun stroke or all. The winter and summer are even more deadlier for people who can’t afford to buy multiple layers of cloth to stay warm in winter or rent a place to stay inside during extreme heat. So the weather becomes an enemy to the poor ones.  

 

2) Energy Expenditure:  

Energy use is in huge demand these days.  Despite the presence of electric star appliances and electric vehicles, energy waste is still a colossal issue in the world (Electricity domestic consumption, 2).  In fact, the United States wastes more than 60% of the total energy it produces (GaugeTech, 1).  Another study by the National Energy Action (NEA) indicates that UK generates about 37.2 quadrillion of BTU of electricity, out of which 12.521 quadrillions of BTU (33.3%) is consumed while the rest 24.679 quadrillion of BTU which accounts for (66.7%) is wasted (NEA, 2).  

 

This is because of one major reason: High consumption of electric appliances over the summer.

 

During the summers, the usage of electric appliances has become a necessity.  Air conditioners use up to 5% of all electricity produced in the US (US Energy information administration, 3 & How bad is your Air – conditioner for the planet, 1).  On average, 6.672 metric tons of CO2 is released from each air conditioned household.  The total CO2 emissions generated per household equals 9.26 metric tons per home per year (US Energy administration, 2) .      

 

Here is a graph showing the world’s power consumption from 1990 to 2017.  The countries with dark colors indicate the highest power consumption among other countries.  These countries include US, China, India, and Japan (World power consumption, 1 & 3).

 

For example: If we look at China, it has had the most jump.  From 534 TWh in 1990 to 5683 TWh in 2017, China has had the highest power consumption, more than 10 times than that in 1990 (Is cooling the house heating up the planet, 3).  The high usage of power in these countries has depleted the resources around us (World power consumption, 2 & Is cooling the house heating up the planet, 2).   

 

Objectives:

Our solution to solve the above mentioned problems, is to create a shirt that keeps the body hot or cold depending on the user’s preference. This will help eliminates the need to change thermostats in buildings and turn on air conditioners/heaters which will help conserve energy. By reducing the usage of these machines, we can potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from air conditioners

Upon discovering a unique material, Nanoporous Polyethylene,(Sealy 2017) we want to extensively research the material and observe its properties and the effect it has on the transmissibility of heat.  In other words, we want to see if this material has the ability to regulate the temperature of the human body by either making it hot or cold upon one’s desires. We also want to observe the material is similar to cotton in which it allows for water molecules to pass through because it would provide the potential for a sweat resistant shirt. One of our It also important that we test the material in its comfortability so it is wearable for the customers.  

 

Plan of Action:         

From experimentation and research we see that the nanoporous polyethylene material has small nanoscale holes throughout it. These nanoscale holes vary in size from 50 to 1000 nanometers(Saxena 2018). What’s unique about this is that because its pore sizes are similar to the wavelength of visible external light, it “scatters” it (Saxena 2018). So it blocks off light from the sun and for that reason it also gives the material a non transparent look compared to regular polyethylene. The pore size is actually very small compared to the wavelength of human body IR radiation heat and allows approximately 90 percent of the heat to pass through it(Saxena 2018). This will allow the heat from our body to escape our bodies while preventing heat from outside entering. This gives evidence that nanoporous polyethylene is an excellent fabric to use in our shirts to provide the cooling effect. We also found that it is actually better than cotton in letting water pass through the material (Saxena 2018). So this means that we can make a shirt that is sweat resistant.

We plan to create a shirt that is reversible and provides cooling on one side and heating on the other. To do this we will have to insert two materials layered between the nanoporous polyethylene material with opposite emissivity to body heat radiation(Sealy, 2017). The high emissive layer will allow the heat from the body to escape while the low emissive layer will help retain the body heat to keep the body warm. To get the best cooling and heating effect we have to come up with the best measurements of thickness for each layer. The high emissive layer will be made out of carbon and the low emissive layer will be made out of copper.

For our tests used a 9 µm thick layer for the carbon layer(high emitter) and 0.15µm for the copper layer(low emitter)(Donnell 2017). We placed a 12 µm thick layer of nanoporous polyethylene on top of the copper layer and a 36 µm layer on top of the carbon layer(Donnell 2017). We tested the fabric on an artificial skin simulator that had water powered heating and cooling (Donnell 2017). We found that the cooling side of our fabric decreased the skins temperature by 3.1 degrees celsius (Donnell 2017). The reverse heating side increased the skins temperature by 6.5 degrees celsius (Donnell 2017).

Still more research is needed to find the measurements and materials that will provide the greatest change in increasing and decreasing the temperature. We plan on continuing these tests in the same manner. We also want to find cheaper alternatives to copper and carbon so we can make our product affordable to people. With our results right now we can create a shirt that keep the body cool or warm depending on the side the shirt is worn.

 

Management Plan:   

According to a graduate of RMIT University, a small sized jacket roughly takes about 3m or 9m2 of fabric (Mike, 2018). In today’s market the Nanoporous Polyethylene costs about $2 per m2(Saxena, 2018). So, the jacket is going to have $18 worth of Nanoporous Polyethylene in it. Also, to make it reversible, the jacket would need 9-micron-thick layer of carbon, which costs about $6 (“What is Carbon Pricing? | Carbon Pricing Dashboard”, 2018). The last piece is the 150 nm layer of copper which costs around $8.70 (Charts, 2018).

We are planning to complete our project in 1-2 years. We want to test the product out first and find out how well it works. The cost of each jacket is going to be somewhere around $50. We will be trying to make it cheaper by replacing copper, carbon with silicon dioxide. But first we have to test if Silicon Dioxide will work on it or not. The maintenance cost is projected to be around $21,000 per year. Also, the labor cost is going to be around $36,000 annually, and we will be getting help from international labor so we can keep the price of our product cheap. Of course, the equipments we would need will cost money, which is projected to be around $60,000. So our total budget is going to be around $150,000.

 

Conclusion:    

To summarize, our team has shown dramatic progress in our prototype and have produced desirable results in the experiments. In addition, our product is energy efficient and it is a preventive solution to CO2 emissions.  This is also a product that is affordable to many and it reduces yearly expenses on seasonal clothings.  In the future, however, our team would try to enhance the comfort by adding more features to it such as heating pads and/or cooling sensors, along with various styles, designs and colors.  As the world continues to expand and advance, it is these products which will alter the perspective of the citizens of this world and will help the world improvise for a better future.

References:   

 

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Hodge, T. (Ed.). (2018, April 17). U.S. Energy Information Administration – EIA – Independent Statistics and Analysis. Retrieved December 5, 2018, from https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=35812

 

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https://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/campaign/pdf/table_appliances_en.pdf    

 

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