carbon free

Fossil-free fertilizer

November 9, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Ammonia is a major industrial commodity. About 70% of it is used to make fertilizer, with the rest for a wide range of industrial applications. Ammonia is the starting point for all mineral nitrogen fertilizers.

Typically, ammonia is a byproduct of isolating hydrogen from natural gas, which releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. On a global scale, the climate impact of ammonia production is comparable to that of air travel. The world needs more ammonia but really cannot afford the emissions that come with its production.

There are also political implications of ammonia production. Because it relies so heavily on natural gas, ammonia supply is vulnerable to disruptions from events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions imposed after the invasion have hindered fertilizer exports, driving up costs, especially in places like Africa.

A small fertilizer plant near Nairobi, Kenya will be the first farm in the world to produce its own nitrogen fertilizer on site that is free of fossil fuels. The plant is being built by an American startup company Talus Renewables and will use solar power to strip hydrogen from water. The hydrogen will then bond with nitrogen from the air to form liquid ammonia. The plant will produce one ton of ammonia each day.

The typical bag of fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa travels 6,000 miles to get there, which of course only adds to the environmental burden of using it as well as its cost. By building a small green ammonia plant like the one coming online in Kenya, it is possible to locally produce a critical raw material in a carbon-free manner.

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Farm in Kenya First to Produce Fossil-Free Fertilizer On Site

Photo courtesy of Talus Renewables via LinkedIn.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Progress Towards Carbon-Free Power | Earth Wise

June 3, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Climate change has driven countries, states, utilities, and corporations to set goals to eliminate power-sector carbon emissions. So far, 17 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have adopted laws or executive orders to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity over the next couple of decades. Forty-six U.S. utilities have pledged to go carbon-free no later than 2050. Adding these together, these government and industry goals cover about half of the U.S. population and economy.

New research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has analyzed historical trends to determine how much progress the power sector has already made in reducing emissions. The study focused on the 2005 Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration.

If the previous growth in emissions had continued from 2005 to 2020, annual CO₂ emissions would have risen from 2,400 to 3,000 million metric tons. But actual 2020 emissions fell to only 1,450 metric tons. So, by this metric, the U.S. power sector cut emission by 52% below projected levels.

According to the study, total consumer electricity costs were 18% lower than projected values, but meanwhile, the number of jobs in electricity generation was 29% higher.

Among the driving forces for these trends were wind and solar power dramatically outperforming earlier expectations, delivering 13 times more generation in 2020 than projected.

The study shows that dramatic changes in emissions are possible over a 15-year span, but much has to happen over the next 15 years to ensure the progress required to meet the ambitious goals set for emissions reductions.

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U.S. Power Sector is Halfway to Zero Carbon Emissions

Photo, posted April 18, 2020, courtesy of Roman Ranniew via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New York And Renewables | Earth Wise

January 7, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In 2019, New York generated more electricity from renewable sources than all but three other states. The 39.4 million MWh of renewable electricity generated in New York was the largest of any state east of the Mississippi.

New York has been a leader in renewable power long before it became a topic of great interest because of its hydroelectric power. In 2019, 78% of the state’s renewable electricity came from hydropower. The Robert Moses Niagara hydroelectric plant is the second-largest capacity conventional hydroelectric power plant in the country.

The three states that generated more renewable electricity than New York are California, Texas, and Washington. Washington gets 69% of all its electricity generation from its multiple hydroelectric plants which together produce a quarter of all hydroelectric power in the nation. Texas leads the nation in wind-powered generation and gets over 17% of its in-state generation from wind. California gets 14% of its power from solar generation, 7% from wind, and over 16% from its own hydroelectric resources.

Wind is the second-largest source of renewable power in New York, accounting for 11% of renewable generation in the state and 3% of total electricity generation. Solar power is expanding in New York, but the great majority of it is still in the form of small-scale installations on residential and commercial rooftops.

New York’s renewable generation grew from 19% in 2005 to 30% at present. New York’s Clean Energy Standard adopted in 2015 requires the state to generate 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040.

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New York generated fourth most electricity from renewables of any state in 2019

Photo, posted October 15, 2010, courtesy of michael-swan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Generating Hydrogen From Poor-Quality Water | Earth Wise

September 8, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Hydrogen could be the basis of a complete energy system. It could be stored and transported and could be used to power vehicles and to generate electricity in power plants. Proponents of the so-called hydrogen economy contend that hydrogen is the best solution to the global energy challenge. But among the challenges faced by a hydrogen economy is the development of an efficient and green method to produce hydrogen.

The primary carbon-free method of producing hydrogen is to break down water into its constituent elements – hydrogen and oxygen. This can be done in a number of ways, notably by using electricity in a process called electrolysis. A method that seems particularly attractive is to use sunlight as the energy source that breaks down the water molecule.

While there is an abundance of water on our planet, only some of it is suitable for people to drink and consume in other ways. Much of the accessible water on earth is salty or polluted. So, a technique to obtain hydrogen from water ideally should work with water that is otherwise of little use to people.

Researchers in Russia and the Czech Republic have recently developed a new material that efficiently generates hydrogen molecules by exposing water – even saltwater or polluted water – to sunlight.

The new material is a three-layer structure composed of a thin film of gold, an ultra-thin layer of platinum, and a metal-organic framework or MOF of chromium compounds and organic molecules. The MOF layer acts as a filter that gets rid of impurities.

Experiments have demonstrated that 100 square centimeters of the material can generate half a liter of hydrogen in an hour. The researchers continue to improve the material and increase its efficiency over a broad range of the solar spectrum.

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New Material Can Generate Hydrogen from Salt and Polluted Water

Photo courtesy of Tomsk Polytechnic University.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.