’People want trendy glasses’

“My goal was to find a new application for 3D printers and to develop a business concept,” says Marieke Korthals, who will defend her MSc thesis on Friday, 20 May, at the faculty of Industrial Design. Korthals pursued her research under supervision of Enviu, a foundation that promotes innovative business ideas focused on developing countries. 

“Enviu first suggested that I look into the possibility of making mobile phones. The 3D print technology is evolving rapidly, however, almost equalling injection molding. But still, making a complete telephone? Maybe in 2020 or 2030 that will be possible. I wanted my idea to be applicable within a few years. So I decided to focus on glasses.”

According to Korthals, about 135 million people worldwide need corrective glasses but cannot afford them, or – and this is especially the case in rural areas – are simply ignorant of the fact that glasses would be helpful to them. After having gained more in-depth knowledge of 3D print technology and having interviewed opticians, Korthals concluded that this lack of glasses offered interesting business opportunities.

But Korthals is not the first to attempt to tap into this so-called ‘bottom of the pyramid’, the largest and poorest socio-economic group, with cheap glasses. Several Dutch companies are making self-adjustable spectacles, based on a system that features lenses that slide across each other to alter their focus.

“These glasses only cost about 2 euros,” Korthals says. “But the problem is that they’re ugly and they are all the same. There’s no differentiation between glasses for men, women and children. People therefore do not accept them, especially not in India, where I’m focusing on, as status is very important there. People want trendy glasses.” 

An optician travelling with a 3D printer should be able to make the frames, slightly larger, rounder or smaller, according to the person’s wishes. One bottleneck to overcome however is the manufacturing of the actual eyeglasses, which cannot be printed yet. Korthals thinks however that as technology advances, this should no longer be a problem by 2015. 

About a fifth of Europe’s supplies of Russian gas is pumped through Belarus. Wouter Pieterse, a PhD student specializing in the geopolitics of energy, does not believe however that this quarrel will have a major impact on gas supplies to the rest of Europe. “If necessary, Russia can pump more gas through Ukraine”, he says. “And what’s more, it’s summer now, so we require less gas. Many countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, are filling up their gas reservoirs.”

Nonetheless quarrels like this between Russia and former Soviet states are troublesome for Europe. Can’t Europe reduce its dependency on this gas?
Pieterse: “Pipelines are planned and being built through Turkey, from Asia to southern Europe, and the North Stream Pipeline is being built through the Baltic, directly linking Germany to Russia, and reducing dependency on transit countries like Belarus and the Ukraine.”

Pieterse, an energy expert at the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, also notes that we have been buying gas from Russia for more than thirty years, so we should see things in perspective: “This country, where one-third of the world’s gas reserves have been found, is quite reliable, despite the politics between Russia and the former Soviet states that are still in its power sphere.”

And how about increasing our own gas production? Last week New Scientist wrote about non-conventional ways of winning gas, which could possibly increase the world’s reserves three or four times over (Wonderfuel gas, NS, 12 June 2010).

But petroleum professor, Stefan Luthi (Civil Engineering and Geosciences), says the prospects in Europe are not too rosy. The technique involves drilling deep into shale, containing hydrocarbons, originating from life forms millions of years old. Under enormous pressure and heat from the Earth’s core, these remnants crack into ever smaller molecules, culminating in methane. Only a tiny fraction of the gas rises through the shale, where it may be captured in porous stone under a sealing cap. “We know of the Slochteren reservoir, but there will be plenty more gas stuck in the carbon layers underneath”, prof. Luthi explains.

To win this gas, a hole is drilled into the ‘mother stone’, and then horizontal corridors are drilled extending into the stone. Trucks rigged with high-pressure pumps then pump water down through the hole at hundreds of bars, fracturing the stone beneath and thus liberating the gas from the stone. Gas will then spontaneously rise from the well for anything between a few days or a number of years.

It’s an expensive method, Luthi warns, while adding that he believes this fracturing method will only be used if fuel prices rise significantly. Apart from that, Luthi says, European environmental laws will limit the use of fracturing, since it requires, and pollutes, large amounts of water.