News | Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

Illinois Biochar Group Meeting – Fall 2012

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) is getting ready to host its fall Illinois Biochar Group meeting. Meetings are held three times a year and are usually located at ISTC. The Illinois Biochar Group encourages research in the production and use of biochar including the project topics: soil amendments, site remediation, carbon sequestration, and supercapacitors.

Two new ISTC publications

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center has published two new reports: RR – 122 / Risks to Birds in the Lake Calumet Region from Contaminated Emergent Aquatic Insects / Soucek, David J.; Levengood; Levengood, Jeffrey M.; Gallo, Sue; Hill, Walter R.; Bordson, Gary O.; Talbott, Jonathan L. — Champaign, IL : Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, 2013. […]

Sustainability Seminar Series: February 2013

ISTC will host two more seminars this month.

Sustainability in Action Seminar Series Announced

The fall Sustainability Seminar Series resumes at noon, Thursday, Sept. 26 with Jeff Mendez, Global Communications Director, ERS International, speaking on “Upcycling of Electronics.” Mendez will speak via a live webinar from Toronto. Plan ahead to participate in all of this fall’s seminars. They will be live at ISTC’s Stephen J. Warner Conference Room, or […]

Triclosan Shown to Trigger Resistance in Aquatic Ecosystems

A widely used compound to prevent bacterial contamination is persisting in the environment and creating antibacterial resistant strains of bacteria. That is the conclusion of a study by researchers at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, Loyola University Chicago, and the Cary institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. The study […]

Trash Into Treasure: New Advances in Upcycling Electronic Waste

Innovative companies are adding upcycling to their repertoire of materials reuse for electronic waste. Upcycling brings added quality or environmental value to things we throw away. ERS International develops and utilizes new technologies which allow them to obtain maximum recovery value of electronics via electrostatic separation & particle classification. But ERS has also made significant […]

Congrats to Technology Assistance Program at U of I

The Technology Assistance Program which helps local governments and companies prevent pollution and conserve resources received a national MVP2 Award in Washington DC earlier this month. The ICORE program received its Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award for saving Illinois more than $6 million over the past four years. The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) award went to […]

Champaign County Electronics Collection Event – October 12, 2013

Do you have electronics piling up in your garage or other storage area? Wonder what you can do with them? You are in luck. The Champaign County Electronics Collection event is coming up on October 12, 2013. This is a free drop off for specific items such as: televisions, computers and laptops, computer monitors, keyboards, mice, cables, […]

Wood Biochar Offers Promise of Cheap Supercapacitors

ISTC is investigating wood-biochar’s use as a supercapacitor. The material offers equal power capabilities as activated carbon, but is much less expensive. A team led by Senior Engineer Junhua Jiang published results in the journal Electrocimica Acta, demonstrating the natural microstructures of biochars can be provide effective surface area for electrodes. Currently supercapactitors are […]

Let Go of Your Old Dusty Electronics for Free

ISTC will accept electronic waste for recycling from 2-6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18. As part of the national 2014 Recycle Mania Tournament, electronic waste can be dropped off at three locations on the University of Illinois campus. ISTC will feature vehicle drop off collection behind its 1 East Hazelwood Drive facility in the Research […]