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Wildfires And Air Quality | Earth Wise

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People in the Northeast have been dealing with unhealthy air quality in recent times because of smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada.  Canada has experienced a much higher than average incidence of blazes this year with nearly 500 fires burning uncontrolled at times.

It turns out that states far away from Canada aren’t necessarily free from the impact of the fires.  Early in October, smoke from a wildfire burning in Quebec made its way south all the way down to Florida and created unhealthy air quality and reduced visibility across much of the state.  Smoke from the same fire had created hazy air in Boston, New York City, and parts of Connecticut before heading south.

It took a rather unusual set of atmospheric conditions to make this happen.  The smoke drifted from Canada into the western Atlantic.  From there, it got trapped behind a cold front and was then pushed south along the east coast until it finally moved inland across Florida. 

Wildfires produce a variety of particles and gases from the burning of vegetation such as organic carbon, black carbon, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and hazardous air pollutants.  The mixture of particles and gases in wildfire smoke is associated with respiratory symptoms like shortness of breath and reduced lung function, as well as dangerous cardiovascular effects.

Smoke from increasingly frequent and increasingly large fires has started to undo decades of gains in air quality brought about by air pollution policies.  According to researchers, wildfires in the United States in recent years have undone about 25% of past progress in cleaning up air pollution in states from coast to coast.

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Wildfire Smoke From Canada Creates Unhealthy Air Quality in Florida

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of Anthony Quintano via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Turning Pollution Into Cash | Earth Wise     

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Power plants and other industrial facilities are a major source of carbon emissions.  There are a variety of techniques under development to prevent those emissions by capturing them rather than releasing them into the atmosphere.  All of them add costs to the functioning of the facility.  A good way to offset those costs is to convert the emissions into useful products, ideally making it profitable to capture emissions.

Engineers at the University of Cincinnati have developed an electrochemical system that converts carbon dioxide into ethylene, which is a chemical used in a wide range of manufacturing.  Ethylene has sometimes been called “the world’s most important chemical”.  It is used in many kinds of plastics, textiles, and the rubber found in tires and insulation. It is also used in heavy industry such as steel and cement plants as well as in the oil and gas industry.

The Cincinnati process is a two-stage cascade reaction that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and then into ethylene.  It is based on the underlying principle of the plug-flow reactor that is used for variety of production applications.  The study, published in the journal Nature Catalysis, demonstrates that the process has high ethylene selectivity – meaning that it effectively isolates the desired compound – as well as high productivity – meaning that it makes a lot of it.  The system will take more time to become truly economical, but the researchers are continuing to make progress on that front with improved catalysts.

The researchers believe that this technique can reduce carbon emissions and make a profit doing it.  Power plants and other facilities emit a lot of carbon dioxide.  With this process, it may be possible to capture it and produce a valuable chemical.

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Conversion process turns pollution into cash

Photo, posted February 27, 2018, courtesy of Cyprien Hauser via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New York And Green Hydrogen | Earth Wise

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In July, outgoing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans for the state to explore the potential role of green hydrogen as part of New York’s decarbonization strategy.

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced using renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and hydro power.  While hydrogen itself is a carbon-free fuel, most of the hydrogen produced today is made with a process called natural gas reforming which has byproducts of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.  As a result, the environmental benefits of using hydrogen are largely lost.  Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe but extracting it for use as a fuel is not easy.

Green hydrogen is obtained by splitting water molecules into their constituent hydrogen and oxygen parts.  In principle, oxygen is the only byproduct of the process.  The main drawback of electrolysis, as this process is called, is that it is energy intensive as well as being expensive.  But if that energy comes from renewable sources, then it is a clean process.

New York’s announcement is that the state will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and join two hydrogen-focused organizations to inform state decision-making, as well as make $12.5 million in funding available for long duration energy storage techniques and demonstration projects that may include green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize many of the more challenging sectors of the economy.  Hydrogen is a storable, transportable fuel that can replace fossil fuels in many applications.  Many experts believe that the so-called hydrogen economy could be the future of the world’s energy systems.  For that to happen, green hydrogen will need to be plentiful, sustainable, and inexpensive.

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New York announces initiatives to explore green hydrogen for decarbonization

Photo, posted October 26, 2019, courtesy of Pierre Blache via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Dangerous Smoke From Australia’s Wildfires | Earth Wise

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Wildfires raging across Australia have devastated large swathes of land and prompted one of the largest evacuations in the country’s history.  The fires, which have scorched approximately 20 million acres, have also killed 27 people and affected an estimated one billion animals at the time of this recording. The fire season, though still young, already ranks as among the worst in Australia’s recorded history. 

Away from the flames, millions more in Australia are breathing unhealthy air as a result of the smoke from these wildfires. Wildfires release all sorts of dangerous air pollutants, like carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide.  But wildfires also release fine particulate matter (more commonly referred to as PM2.5), which can be transported long distances.  Breathing in these microscopic particles can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular problems.  High levels of PM2.5 are particularly harmful to older people, young children, and those with weakened immune systems.  

The Australian capital city of Canberra has been covered in a thick haze of smoke from nearby wildfires.  Canberra recorded its worst air quality day on January 2nd, when levels of PM2.5 spiked to more than 200 micrograms per cubic meter during the worst hour.

Smoke has also been fouling Sydney’s air off and on for months, with PM2.5 readings hitting nearly 400 micrograms per cubic meter last month during the highest hour of pollution. 

The U.S. EPA has in place an annual PM2.5 standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter and a daily (or 24 hour) standard of 35. 

According to the IPCC, southern Australia is expected to see increased risk of fire as the planet continues to warm.  Regrettably, this could be the new normal. 

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Millions of Australians Are Choking on Smoke From Wildfires

Photo, posted December 5, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Clean Gas From An Artificial Leaf

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Photosynthesis is the process used by plants, algae and certain bacteria to harness energy from sunlight and turn it into chemical energy.  It is often described as the green engine of life on earth.

For quite some time, there have been extensive research efforts around the world in the area of artificial photosynthesis.  The goal is to somehow mimic the behavior of plants in order to generate clean-burning fuels using nothing more than sunlight and the carbon dioxide in the air.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have recently demonstrated a so-called artificial leaf that can directly produce syngas using sunlight.   Syngas is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.  Most people haven’t heard of syngas, but many products are created using it.  Being able to produce it sustainably would be a critical step to a far greener chemical and fuel industry.

The artificial leaf contains two light absorbers, similar to the molecules in plants that harvest sunlight, which are combined with a catalyst made from the naturally abundant element cobalt.  When the device is immersed in water, one light absorber uses the catalyst to produce oxygen.  The other carries out the chemical reaction that reduces carbon dioxide and water into carbon monoxide and hydrogen.  The result is the syngas mixture.

It turns out that even a rainy or overcast day provides enough light to drive the process.

Previous artificial leaf devices have mostly just produced hydrogen.  The Cambridge device produces syngas thanks to the novel combination of materials and catalysts it uses.

The researchers are now focused on finding ways to use the technology to produce a sustainable gasoline substitute.

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‘Artificial leaf’ successfully produces clean gas

Photo, posted August 15, 2014, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Lawnmower Pollution

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Over 50 million Americans mow their lawns each week, which uses 800 million gallons of gas per year and produces tons of air pollutants.  Garden equipment engines were completely unregulated with respect to emissions until the late 1990s and still emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides.  In fact, gas mowers and their relatives like leaf blowers and edgers produce 5% of the air pollution in this country.

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The Methanol Economy

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The methanol economy is an idea that was promoted by the late Nobel-prize-winning chemist George Olah since the 1990s.  The idea is to replace fossil fuels with methanol for energy storage, ground transportation fuel, and raw material for hydrocarbon-based products.   Methanol is the simplest alcohol and can be produced from a wide variety of sources ranging from fossil fuels to agricultural products to just carbon dioxide.  Methanol can be used directly as a fuel or it can be reformed into hydrogen, which can then itself be used as a fuel.

[Read more…] about The Methanol Economy

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