All Entries Tagged With: "CO2"
A Breakthrough For Cutting CO2 Emissions
Like it or not, finding ways to cut CO2 emissions is the focal point in debates over what course of action we should take in combating climate change. Even if you reject the human influence, the fact is that fossil fuels are limited and they will get more expensive because they’re becoming harder to get to. Well, get ready for some really good news.
The Oceans and Global Warming
Likely the biggest threats that global warming will face humanity with are regional droughts and ocean acidification. I want to begin a discussion on the latter, by offering an introduction to the process of ocean acidification and its role in global warming.
Imagine that you’ve taken a drive across the farm in your pickup truck. A CO2 molecule is emitted from the truck. That molecule lingers on some oak tree leaves overnight. When the sun comes out the next morning, as part of the process of photosynthesis, that carbon dioxide molecule is absorbed by the tree. The molecule is now part of the carbon in the oak tree.
Later that night when it’s cold, that molecule is released back into the atmosphere as part of plant respiration. The molecule makes its way through the air to the surface of the ocean. It dissolves and reacts to all the salts in the ocean waters. Here a diatom phytoplankton ingests the CO2 making the molecule part of the ocean’s plant-life through the process of marine photosynthesis.
Coal Plant Pollution… Saves The Day?
As I was scanning a little thing I like to call “the web”, I came across an announcement that really caught my eye. About six months ago I heard a great idea about possibly capturing CO2 emissions and turning it into a more durable concrete material. Of course, I expected it to be a few years before anything would come of it, certainly not six months. Investigating further, I proceeded to Louisiana Tech’s website to discover a very pleasant surprise.It turns out that Dr. Erez Allouche, assistant professor of civil engineering at Louisiana Tech University and associate director of the Trenchless Technology Center, is conducting exciting research on geopolymer concrete as a means of providing ways to use a waste byproducts to help curb carbon dioxide emissions. Don’t forget that a polymer is simply a chain of different molecules that are connected (kind of like how a protein is made up of individual amino acids that have been connected). So a GEOpolymer is basically an artificial (man-made) fusing together of two sets of polymeric minerals to produce a whole new product. In this case, the fusing of different coal-plant waste products and sodium silicate (if you want to know more about the chemistry you can ask).
Making Carbon Easier To Capture
CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are projected to rise by more than 50 percent worldwide by 2030. Critical to mitigating climate change is finding a practical way to sequester carbon emissions from fossil fuels, which account for more than 80 percent of energy production in the United States and more than 90 percent worldwide. A major problem is that any system for separating and concentrating the carbon dioxide from a power plant reduces the efficiency of the plant by about a third. That means that it takes more fuel to provide the same amount of electricity.
Some MIT guys (and gals) have tackled this problem, although there’s always some energy penalty to capturing carbon from gas emissions (kinda like separating salt from pepper is more difficult than mixing them). They have devised an oxy-fueled pressurized combustion system. Pure oxygen is fed into the combustion chamber to produce a cleaner and more concentrated emissions stream. This mixture of oxygen and CO2 replaces the combustible air (which is about 79 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen) thus eliminating more than three-quarters of the resulting flue gases (the stuff that escapes into the atmosphere). By putting the whole combustion chamber under pressure, emissions can be concentrated to the point of producing a liquid stream of CO2. The liquid can be easily injected deep underground with (for now) no negative side effects.
A Solution For China’s Energy Needs
A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China. Using extensive meteorological data and factoring in the Chinese government’s percentage of spending on wind energy and the financial restrictions for delivering wind power, the researchers estimate that wind alone has the potential to meet the country’s electricity demands projected for 2030.
China has become second to the U.S. in its national power generating capacity (792.5 gigawatts per year) with an expected future of 10 percent annual increases. With a new coal plant going up every 10 days or so (maybe more ) they now lead in CO2 emissions. One of the main objections to environmental concerns is that if we go off of cheap, coal-produced, electricity many jobs will leave for China. Even if the U.S. switched to “green” energy, all of our improvements would be offset by China’s rise in pollution. So it’s essential that China find new ways of fueling their economic growth, and wind power might be the way.
