Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

You are here: Home / Archives for industry

industry

Converting A Toxin Into An Industrial Chemical | Earth Wise

By Leave a Comment

Nitrogen dioxide is a prominent air pollutant produced by internal combustion engines burning fossil fuels as well as by a variety of industrial processes.  It is a toxic material associated with a number of respiratory illnesses. 

Researchers at the University of Manchester in the UK along with an international team of scientists have developed a new advanced material that can convert nitrogen dioxide from an exhaust gas stream into useful industrial chemical using only water and air.

The material is a metal-organic framework (or MOF) that provides a selective, fully reversible, and repeatable capability to capture nitrogen dioxide.  MOFs are tiny three-dimensional structures that are porous and can trap gases inside as though there were tiny cages.  MOFs have enormous amounts of surface area for their size.  One gram of material can have a surface area as large as a football field.

The material, named MOF-520, can capture nitrogen dioxide at ambient temperatures and pressures and even at low concentration and during flow in the presence of moisture, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide.  Such conditions are typical of the exhaust of internal combustion engines. In fact, the process works best at the typical temperature of automobile exhausts.

Once the nitrogen oxide is absorbed, treating the material with water in air converts it into nitric acid and restores the MOF for additional use.  Nitric acid is the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry with uses including agricultural fertilizers, rocket propellant, and nylon.  Thus, there is great potential for recouping the costs of using the MOF technology and even profiting from it.

It would be great to convert a toxic pollutant into valuable industrial chemicals.

**********

Web Links

Clean air research converts toxic air pollutant into industrial chemical

Photo courtesy of the University of Manchester.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Problem Of Gas Flaring | Earth Wise

By Leave a Comment

Gas flaring is the burning off of flammable gas released by pressure relief values during over-pressuring of plant equipment at petroleum refineries, chemical plants, natural gas processing plants, and a variety of oil and gas production plants.  Flaring is also used during plant startups and shutdowns.

A new study by Rice University concludes that reducing gas flaring would benefit both the environment and the economy. Flaring and venting of gas in West Texas’s Permian Basin and certain other parts of the U.S. have reached levels that the intended result of burning gas to allow oil extraction now looks more like wasting one resource to produce another.

At current rates, enough gas is flared in the Permian Basin to yield nearly 5 million metric tons of exportable liquid natural gas if it was captured and liquified.  At these rates, the wasted gas could fill the largest sized LNG carrier every ten days.  If that liquified natural gas was exported to China and used in a power plant, it would displace 440,000 metric tons of coal burned to generate electricity.

Burning natural gas to heat homes, power industrial processes, or generate electricity all emit carbon dioxide, but at least these things also perform valuable functions. Flaring gas produces CO2 as well as other combustion products but doesn’t even do anything useful.  The venting of unburned gas, which also takes place with some frequency, is even worse since it is dumping methane directly into the atmosphere.

Across the U.S., some 14.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas was flared in 2018, equivalent to nearly 9 million metric tons per year of LNG.  In energy terms, that is equivalent to more than one-third of the total LNG volume U.S. firms actually exported that year.

**********

Web Links

Reducing gas flaring will benefit economy and environment, says Baker Institute expert

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Carbon Capture As Big Business

By Leave a Comment

Removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere is an essential part of the overall effort to achieve zero net carbon emissions and stabilize the climate.  Since we have not been able to reduce emissions fast enough to do the job, it is important to find ways to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

There are many ways to do it, but they tend to be rather expensive and, so far, the need to mitigate climate change does not seem to provide sufficient incentive. A new study by researchers at UCLA, the University of Oxford, and five other institutions, analyzed the possibility of creating a large global industry based on capturing carbon dioxide and turning it into commercial products.

The study investigated the potential future scale and cost of 10 different ways to use carbon dioxide, including in fuels and chemicals, plastics, building materials, soil management, and forestry.  The study looked at processes using carbon dioxide captured from waste products that are produced by burning fossil fuels as well as by simply capturing it directly from the atmosphere.  The study also looked at processes that use carbon dioxide captured biologically by photosynthesis.

The conclusions of the study were that on average each of the ten utilization pathways could use about half a billion tons of carbon dioxide that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere.  Thus, theoretically, these various pathways could take more than five billion tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.   Currently, fossil fuel combustion emits about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

The authors of the study stress that there is no silver bullet in the fight against climate change.  It will require multiple approaches – including CO2 removal for industrial use – to make real progress

**********

Web Links

Carbon dioxide capture and use could become big business

Photo, posted September 18, 2015, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Detecting Methane

By Leave a Comment

Natural gas has become a huge industry in the United States, increasingly replacing coal in power plants, and otherwise contributing to energy independence.  Unfortunately, it also contributes to climate change.  Methane – the primary component of natural gas – is a powerful greenhouse gas that is estimated to be responsible for as much as a quarter of atmospheric warming.

Not all of the emissions from natural gas come from its use.  In the United States, so-called fugitive emissions from the oil and gas industry total an estimated 13 million metric tons per year.  These emissions basically consist of leakage of various types from the extraction, transportation, and processing of natural gas and cost the industry $2 billion in lost revenue each year.  Globally, that figure is estimated to be $30 billion.

Research labs and startup companies are working on developing and deploying novel technologies to address the growing issue of methane leaks across the fossil fuel supply chain.

One company called LongPath Technologies – a spinout from the University of Colorado – uses frequency comb laser technology that can pinpoint a leak to about a 50 square-foot area from half a mile away.  Other companies use different variations on laser absorption technology to be able to measure methane concentrations from a distance. 

Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but it stays in the atmosphere for much less time.  As a result, reducing methane emissions can pay off much more quickly than reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The current EPA is trying to eliminate emissions regulations on the natural gas industry, but it is in the industry’s economic interest to curb those emissions even if they were unconcerned about the environment.

**********

Web Links

Methane Detectives: Can a Wave of New Technology Slash Natural Gas Leaks?

Photo, posted October 22, 2016, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Potential For Offshore Wind

By Leave a Comment

According to a new report from the International Energy Agency, offshore wind technology has vast potential for meeting our energy needs.  In total, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 420,000 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, which is more than 18 times the global electricity demand that exists today.

Based on current policy targets and plummeting technology costs, offshore wind could increase 15-fold by 2040, becoming a $1 trillion industry and eliminating 5 to 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Offshore wind today generates just 0.3% of the world’s electricity, but its’ use is growing rapidly.  The industry has grown nearly 30% a year since 2010, and 150 new offshore projects are currently in development around the world.  The leading countries are in Europe – especially in the UK, Germany, and Denmark – but China is greatly expanding its offshore capacity and the US, India, Korea, Japan, and Canada are also expected to make large investments in offshore wind going forward.

Offshore wind is in a category of its own because it is considered a variable baseload power generation technology.  This is because the hourly variability of offshore wind is much lower than solar power or onshore wind.  Offshore wind typically fluctuates far less from hour-to-hour than the other variable energy sources.

Technology improvements and industry growth are driving steep cost reductions for offshore wind.  The cost of offshore wind is expected to be cut in half in the next five years, dropping to $60 per megawatt-hour, which is on par with solar and onshore wind and cheaper than new natural gas-fired capacity in Europe.

**********

Web Links

Offshore Wind Has the Potential to Fulfill Global Electricity Demand 18 Times Over

Photo, posted August 9, 2016, courtesy of Lars Plougmann via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Clean Gas From An Artificial Leaf

By Leave a Comment

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.

**********

Web Links

‘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.

Bananas In Danger

By Leave a Comment

For a few years we have been talking about the precarious position of the global banana crop, which is almost entirely based upon a single cloned cultivar known as the Cavendish banana.  The banana you buy in Rome is identical to the one in Rochester.  And therein lies the danger:  if a fungal blight can kill one banana shrub, it can kill them all.

For decades, a fungal disease known as Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 has been wreaking havoc on banana plantations in the Eastern Hemisphere.   Even though it was first identified in Taiwanese soil samples in the early 1990s, the destructive fungus remained confined to Southeast Asia and Australia until it was confirmed in both the Middle East and Africa in 2013.  Experts continued to fear its eventual appearance in Latin America, which is the epicenter of the global banana export industry.

In August, Colombian agricultural authorities announced that laboratory tests have positively identified the presence of Tropical Race 4 in the Caribbean coastal region and declared a national state of emergency.

The infection of the banana plant does not produce bananas that are unsafe for humans.  What happens is that the infected plants eventually stop bearing fruit.

Cavendish bananas are a prime example of the dangers of growing crops with limited genetic diversity – known as monoculture.  It leaves food systems dangerously vulnerable to disease epidemics.

This has happened to the global banana crop before when the predecessor to the Cavendish banana – the Gros Michel – was mostly eradicated by another fungal outbreak.  At the moment, there is no ready replacement banana to bail out the industry, but scientists are desperately trying to breed one.  In the meantime, the world’s supply of bananas is in real danger.

**********

Web Links

The banana is one step closer to disappearing

Photo, posted July 9, 2009, courtesy of Dabin Lambert via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Renewable Natural Gas

By Leave a Comment

Small-scale biogas systems have collected methane from landfills, sewage plants, and farms for decades.  Here in the US, biogas is finally catching up with modern techniques with the advent of third-party operators introducing more sophisticated technology to capture methane and pump it directly into pipelines.

Renewable methane or natural gas represents a significant mostly unexploited source of energy.  Examples include the vast amounts methane generated by manure from some of the 2,300 hog farms in eastern North Carolina, biodigesters that can turn clusters of large California dairy farms into energy hubs, as well as diverting food waste from landfills and transforming it into vehicle and heating fuels.

According to a 2014 EPA study, the U.S. could support at least 13,000 biogas facilities, fed by manure, landfill gas, and biosolids from sewage treatment plants.  Those facilities could produce over 650 billion cubic feet of biogas per year – enough renewable energy to power 3 million homes.

A study by the World Resources Institute estimated that the 50 million tons of organic waste sent to landfills or incinerated every year in the U.S. has the energy content of 6 billion gallons of diesel fuel, amounting to 15% of all diesel consumed by heavy-duty trucks and buses.

Utilizing all that biogas could help lower greenhouse gas emissions from some of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize – transportation, industry, and heating buildings.  In addition, ramped up renewable gas could keep organic waste out of landfills and prevent manure runoff into rivers and water supplies.

Renewable natural gas could be the next big thing in green energy.

**********

Web Links

Could Renewable Natural Gas Be the Next Big Thing in Green Energy?

Photo, posted June 19, 2013, courtesy of Alan Levine via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cleaner Air Saves Lives

By Leave a Comment

A new study by Columbia University has concluded that lower air pollution levels saved an estimated 5,660 lives in New York State in 2012, compared to 2002 mortality levels.

The study looked at New York State levels of the specific type of pollution known as fine particulate matter, referred to as PM2.5.  These microscopic particulates are a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets that either come from burning fuel or are formed in the atmosphere as a result of complex reactions of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants, industries, and automobiles.

Long-term exposure to PM2.5 can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular problems.

The study looked at extensive amounts of data to analyze trends in PM2.5 levels across New York State.  The data showed that PM2.5 levels dropped by 28 to 37% between 2002 and 2012.  This was a result of continued progress in cleaner vehicles, the reduction of high sulfur-dioxide emitting coal-burning power plants, and other air pollution reduction programs.  They calculated that this amount of reduction in PM2.5 reduced the air pollution mortality burden for New York State residents by 67% – from 8,410 premature deaths in 2002 to 2,750 deaths in 2012.

The study provides evidence that emission controls on air pollutants – which were initiated by the Clean Air Act of 1970 and later expanded in 1990 – have improved public health across New York State.  According to the researchers, the study is a key step to documenting the health benefits from cleaner air.

**********

Web Links

Air Pollution Cuts Are Saving Lives in New York State

Photo, posted October 13, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

China And Rare Earth Mining

By Leave a Comment

Rare earth elements are a crucial part of much of modern technology.  Everything from computers to X-ray machines and aircraft engines needs one or more rare earth elements for magnets, lenses, and other functions.  The world’s tech giants such as Apple, Huawei, and Tesla depend on suppliers of rare earths.

Rare earth elements are not actually rare, but they are very expensive to extract in ways that are not extremely harmful to the environment.  China has been a major source of these elements since its rare earth mining industry took off in the 1990s.  The removal of rare earths from the earth’s crust, using a mix of water and chemicals, has caused extensive water and soil pollution.

Today, concrete leaching ponds and plastic-lined wastewater pools dot the hills of Southeast China.  Large wastewater ponds sit uncovered and open to the elements in many places.  Landslides or barrier failures can spill contaminated contents into waterways or groundwater.

Local and federal officials in China have started to shut down illegal and small-scale rare earth mining operations and have embarked on a cleanup of polluted sites.  The rare earth mining cleanup operation is part of wider efforts across China to address severe problems of water, air and soil pollution.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology estimated that the cleanup bill for southern Jiangxi Province could amount to more than $5 billion.  Many environmental experts and local officials say that the cost of the cleanup should not be shouldered by the Chinese government alone, but also by the rare earth industry and the global companies and consumers that benefit from rare earth technology.  As rare earth mining efforts start up elsewhere around the world, it is important not to repeat the mistakes made in China.

**********

Web Links

China Wrestles with the Toxic Aftermath of Rare Earth Mining

Photo, posted April 21, 2019, courtesy of John Beans via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Mass Timber

By Leave a Comment

Mass timber is a type of construction typically characterized by the use of large solid wood panels for wall, floor, and roof construction. Large structural panels, posts, and beams glued under pressure or nailed together in layers, with the wood’s grain stacked perpendicular for extra strength – are prized as innovative building materials, superior to concrete and steel in many ways.  Mass timber has pushed the perceived boundaries of wood construction, leading to building heights and spans that traditionally have required concrete, steel or masonry for structural support. The move to mass timber has become something of a construction revolution and many see it as a significant part of a climate change solution. 

The question is just how green is mass timber construction?  How sustainable is it in terms of the forest management, logging, manufacture and transportation of wood products involved?

A number of environmental groups are very skeptical.  There is not yet comprehensive data on the subject.  Only recently have interdisciplinary scientists begun to study the potential climate impacts of the wide use of mass timber.

Despite these questions, the mass timber industry is taking off.  Demand for mass timber posts and beams has led to new sawmills opening in the U.S. Northwest and many new jobs for loggers.

The aesthetics and economics of mass timber are both very attractive compared with conventional large-scale construction materials.  The real unknowns relate to the environmental impact of its widespread use.  If that can take place in a sustainable and environmentally conscientious way, it would be very important in the fight against climate change.  Carbon dioxide emissions from the building industry account for more than a third of global emissions, primarily from the concrete and steel industries.

**********

Web Links

As Mass Timber Takes Off, How Green Is This New Building Material?

Photo, posted March 19, 2018, courtesy of Freres Lumber Co via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Making Roads From Ocean Plastic

By Leave a Comment

Like many other places around the world, India has a big problem with plastic waste.  Its 1.3 billion people each use an average of 24 pounds of plastic per year and much of it ends up in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

Fishermen in India’s southern state of Kerala have taken on the battle against plastic waste in the ocean by launching a campaign called Suchitwa Sagaram, or Clean Sea, in which they are collecting the plastic and bringing it back to shore.

In the first 10 months of the program, fisherman have removed 25 tons of plastic from the Arabian Sea.  Once the plastic waste reaches shore, it is fed into a plastic shredding machine.  As is the case for many of India’s plastic recycling schemes, the shredded plastic from the sea is converted into material that is used for road surfacing.

There are more than 20,000 miles of plastic roads in India, mostly in rural areas.  In fact, more than half the roads in the southern state of Tamil Nadu are plastic.  Such roads have become popular because they are more resilient to India’s searing heat.  The melting point of plastic roads is around 150 degrees Fahrenheit as compared to 122 degrees for conventional roads.

Roads made from recycled plastic are also cheaper than ones using conventional plastic additives.  A mile of plastic road uses the equivalent of a million and a half plastic bags and saves about a ton and a half of asphalt.  Overall, plastic roads are about 8% cheaper than conventional roads and create jobs for people in the fishing communities.

India’s plastic roads are a promising way to fight the problem of ocean plastic pollution.

**********

Web Links

These Indian fishermen take plastic out of the sea and use it to build roads

Photo, posted April 25, 2016, courtesy of Bo Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Drilling In California

By Leave a Comment

More than one million acres of public and private land in California may soon be opened up to oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing, according to a plan recently released by the Trump Administration.  The proposal raises environmental concerns, and comes at a time when opposition to oil and gas drilling in the state is growing.  

The plan, put forth by the Bureau of Land Management, would end a five-year moratorium in the state on leasing federal public land to oil and gas developers.  In 2013, a federal judge put the moratorium in place until the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could be better evaluated.

Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure underground in order to crack open rocks and extract oil or gas.  Well-documented risks associated with fracking include air and water pollution, as well as increased risks of oil spills and earthquakes.

Nevertheless, the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, released its 174-page environmental impact statement with the proposal to open up 1,011,470 acres of land to fossil fuel extraction, impacting the California counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura. 

Unsurprisingly, the draft plan has been praised by industry groups who say concerns are misguided, and slammed by environmentalists who say the move poses a serious public health risk and could lead to a “fracking frenzy.”

The proposal is now subject to a 45-day period for public comment, after which the Interior Department will determine how to proceed.  A link to weigh in on the proposal can be found here.

*********

Web Links

Trump fracking plan targets over 1 million acres in California

Bakersfield Field Office Hydraulic Fracturing Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

Photo, posted March 14, 2010, courtesy of Mike Baird via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plant-Based Jet Fuels

By Leave a Comment

The global aviation industry uses a whole lot of fuel:  more than 5 million barrels a day.  It is an incredibly energy-intensive industry and almost all of its energy comes from petroleum-based fuels.

While other large energy sectors such as electric power, ground transportation and commercial buildings have well-defined pathways to adopting renewable energy sources, the aviation industry does not have such a straightforward way to make a transition to sustainability.  Electrifying planes using batteries or fuel cells is very challenging for a number of reasons, notably the weight restrictions on aircraft.  So liquid biofuels as replacements for petroleum-based fuels remain the most promising approach.

A new study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concludes that sustainable plant-based biofuels could provide a competitive alternative to conventional petroleum fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives are successful.

Multidisciplinary teams based at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute are focused on optimizing each stage of the bio-jet fuel production process.  This includes bioengineering ideal source plants and developing methods for efficiently isolating the carbohydrates in non-food biomass that bacteria can digest and bioconvert into fuel molecules.

The critical issue is cost.  The theoretical cost of bio-jet fuel has come down dramatically in recent years but is still around $16 a gallon.  The cost of standard jet fuel is about $2.50 a gallon.  So, the real challenge is bridging that gap.

Reducing the cost of the fuel could come both from the material and process improvements that are underway as well as by finding ways to turn the leftover lignin residuals from the bioconversion process into valuable chemicals. 

**********

Web Links

Bright Skies for Plant-Based Jet Fuels

Photo, posted March 28, 2009, courtesy of Yasuhiro Chatani via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Lots Of Renewable Energy In Germany

By Leave a Comment

As the contributions to the electrical grid from renewable sources continue to rise, people have expressed concerns about what might happen as sources like wind and solar energy become dominant.  Not many years ago, there was a common concern that if wind and solar contributed more than about a quarter of the energy mix, the grid might become unstable or unreliable.  Theoretical models looked at this situation but there hadn’t been much real-world data to look at.

One place where there is now real-world data on a large scale is Germany.  Germany has been aggressively deploying both wind and solar energy for years as part of a national initiative called the Energiewende or energy transition.  Germany recently increased its renewable energy goal from 55% to 65% by the year 2030.   The increased share of renewables takes into account the decommissioning of aging nuclear and coal power plants.

A demonstration of the feasibility of such a goal occurred in the first week of March when renewable sources actually supplied nearly 65% of Germany’s electricity.  Wind power alone provided nearly half of the country’s power.  As a result, fossil fuel plants ran at a minimum output and nuclear facilities were shut down at night.

Germany has a very large domestic coal industry and indeed lignite coal generated an average of 24% of the country’s power last year.   However, recently that share was down to just 12%.  During that first week of March, solar power contributed more than 5% of Germany’s electricity, biomass 7.6%, and hydropower 3.5%.

While the week with 65% renewable set a record, the ongoing trend is very positive as well.  In 2018, renewable energy generated an average of more than 40% of Germany’s electricity.

**********

Web Links

Renewables Generated a Record 65 Percent of Germany’s Electricity Last Week

Photo, posted April 28, 2012, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Growing Rocks To Store Carbon

By Leave a Comment

The US Geological Survey recently published a comprehensive review of geological carbon storage in sedimentary rocks through carbon mineralization.   That is the process by which carbon dioxide becomes a solid mineral, such as a form of carbonate.  Certain rocks undergo a chemical reaction when exposed to carbon dioxide and turn into different minerals as a result.

The idea is to use carbon mineralization as a way to permanently store carbon dioxide that has been captured from power plant emissions, other industrial activities, or even directly from the atmosphere.

Two basic approaches are injecting the CO2 deep underground or exposing it to crushed rocks at the surface.  The two types of rock best suited for mineralization through injection are basalt and various ultramafic rocks.  Pilot studies have shown that injection into basalt can lead to mineralization in under two years.

Exposing carbon dioxide to crushed rock at the surface generally makes use of crushed mining waste.  Mineralization can be much faster in this case because there is more surface area on the crushed rock where mineralization occurs.  (However, the quantities of rock available at the surface are much less than what exists deep underground).

Like all carbon capture and storage approaches, the key consideration is cost.  The USGS study estimates that underground injection would cost around $30 per metric ton of CO2.  The crushed rock approach might only cost $8 per metric ton, but that assumes the crushed rock is already available.  If it must be newly mined, the costs would obviously go up significantly.  To put this into perspective, a typical car produces around 4 metric tons of CO22 per year.  So, it would cost somewhere between $30 and $120 a year to eliminate the emissions from one car.  Perhaps that is a price we need to pay until we ditch gasoline cars.

**********

Web Links

How Growing Rocks Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions

Photo, posted October 17, 2011, courtesy of Glen Bledsoe via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Another Way To Make Solar Cells

By Leave a Comment

Millions of rooftops now contain solar panels and the majority of the solar cells that make up those panels today are made from silicon.  Silicon solar cells require expensive, multi-step processing conducted at very high temperatures in special clean room facilities.  Despite these complications, the price of solar panels has continued to drop dramatically over the years.

But even as the price of solar cells gets lower and lower, there are still widespread efforts to find even better ways to make them.   One of those ways is with perovskite solar cells.  Perovskites are materials with a characteristic crystal structure and are quite common in nature.  Perovskites can be formed with a wide range of elements and can exhibit a variety of properties.

They were first used to make solar cells about 10 years ago and those first cells were unimpressive in most respects.  However, there has been steady progress since that time.  The potential advantages of perovskite solar cells are that they can be made from low-cost materials and can be manufactured using liquid chemistry, a far cheaper process than what is used to make silicon cells.

Researchers at MIT and several other institutions have recently published the results of research on how to tailor the composition of perovskite solar cells to optimize their properties.   What used to be a trial-and-error process can now become much more engineered and should lead to perovskite solar cells with performance that could exceed that of silicon cells.

Silicon solar panels are a huge, worldwide industry and displacing them in favor of an alternative technology is a tall order.  But if perovskite cells can be optimized for large-scale manufacturability, efficiency and durability, they could definitely give silicon a run for its money.

**********

Web Links

Unleashing perovskites’ potential for solar cells

Photo courtesy of Ken Richardson/MIT.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Can Germany Meet Its Energy Goals?

By Leave a Comment

Germany has been a global leader in efforts to decarbonize its massive economy.  A national initiative known as Energiewende – or clean energy transition – has been in place since 2010 and relies heavily on renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and energy demand management.

The program has involved some of the most aggressive deployment of renewable energy sources in the world.  Germany was the first country to install 1 GW of solar energy and still has the 5th largest amount of solar power in the world despite actually being a country with fairly limited sunshine.  Germany has nearly 30,000 wind turbines, most of which are onshore, unlike many other countries in northern Europe.  Over the past five years, government support and cost to consumers for the shift to clean energy have totaled over $180 billion.

However, despite these efforts, Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions have not declined as rapidly as expected, even though nearly 40% of the country’s electricity now comes from renewable sources.

This lack of expected success comes as a shock to the environmentally conscious German population, nearly 90% of which supports the program.

There are two major problems Germany faces.  One is that Germany is Europe’s largest producer of coal, which still generates more than a third of the country’s power.  The other is that Germany’s large auto industry is still married to gas- and diesel-fueled cars and emissions from the country’s cars are a big problem.

The Energiewende program was driven by political will and investment certainty.  It is unclear whether Germany can muster these forces again.  The Merkel government has dragged its feet on environmental issues in recent years.  It remains to be seen what effect shifting political power in Germany will have.

**********

Web Links

Carbon Crossroads: Can Germany Revive Its Stalled Energy Transition?

Photo, posted August 15, 2011, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Smog And Solar Power

By Leave a Comment

China has been struggling with some of the worst air pollution in the world.  Beijing frequently sits under a brown blanket made of exhaust gases from industry, cars and coal fires, which dump harmful particulate matter, soot, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the air.

The human health consequences are severe.   According to the World Health Organization,air pollution contributes to about 1.6 million premature deaths in China each year.  World-wide, air pollution is implicated in over 7 million deaths annually.

Faced with this air pollution crisis, China has undertaken a wide variety of measures to improve its air and curb carbon dioxide emissions alongthe way.  Among other things, China has invested heavily in the deployment of solar power and has plans for ever greater expansion of solar power in the future.

A study by researchers at ETH in Zurich looked at the impact of China’s air pollution on the production of solar energy.  The smog in China’s cities reduces the amount of solar radiation that reaches the ground and therefore significantly reduces the power output of solar energy systems. According to the study, solar radiation would increase by an average of 11% nationwide as a result of strict air pollution control measures.  In some places, cleaning up the air would result in 26% more energy production.

China’s electric power industry is the world’s largest electricity producer, having passed the United States in 2011.  Two-thirds of the electricity in China still comes from coal, which, apart from the serious climate and health consequences associated with its use, continues to make it more difficult to switch to clean solar power.  Much work remains to be done.

**********

Web Links

Fighting smog supports solar power

Photo, posted February 7, 2014, courtesy of Flickr. 

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cleaner Air For China

By Leave a Comment

For more than 15 years, the Chinese government has been grappling with some of the deadliest air pollution in the world.  Extreme pollution events are a regular wintertime occurrence and health experts estimate that more than a million people die each year in China from particulate air pollution.

[Read more…] about Cleaner Air For China

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)