Positive Innovations: Technology Improving Our World, Part 8 of a Multi-part Series

School buses play an important role in sending many students to school. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in California, USA, is replacing its entire fleet of conventional diesel buses with a new fleet of electric school buses. The clean, quiet electric buses can transport 1,300 students to school. Furthermore, Oakland’s first-of-its-kind electric bus fleet in the nation is equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. V2G allows the buses to draw power from the grid and, after completing their routes, return excess energy back to the grid.

In our next example, scientists from Northampton University, UK, have found an innovative way to convert banana peels into textiles and renewable fuels. The new means of converting waste into fuel is reported to create an estimated 57,488 million cubic meters of syngas. This will help off-grid communities in rural Pakistan gain access to a source of electricity.

The next incredible invention is a spider-like walking robot propelled by the energy of a mushroom! The scientists integrated the fungal mycelia of cultivated king oyster mushrooms into a 3D-printed robot platform full of electrodes. By harnessing the mycelia’s innate electrical signals, the novel control methods allowed the biohybrid robot to react simultaneously to its surrounding environment better than its purely synthetic counterparts.

In the next exciting news, Skyports Infrastructure and Vertical Aerospace recently unveiled the latest zero- emission aviation prototype, VX4. The VX4 is a piloted aircraft designed to carry four passengers, with a range of 100 miles (approximately 160 kilometers) and a cruise speed of 150 miles (about 240 kilometers)

The US-based FlyTahoe company collaborated with Swedish technology company Candela to launch the world’s first flying electric ferry boat. The new electric ferry, developed using hydrofoil technology, is designed to reduce travel time with a service capable of ferrying 30 passengers across Lake Tahoe in 30 minutes.

Whatrr recently launched the world’s first biodegradable water bottle. The excellent results proved that the bottle can biodegrade more than 100 times faster than traditional alternatives like plastic, aluminum, glass, and even paper cartons.