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Cheaper Carbon Capture | Earth Wise

March 7, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As the years roll by without sufficient progress in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the need for technologies that can capture CO2 from its sources or remove it from the air becomes stronger and stronger. People have developed various ways to capture carbon dioxide, but to date, they generally suffer from some combination of being too costly or not being able to scale up to the necessary magnitude.

Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington recently announced the creation of a new system that they claim is the least costly to date that captures carbon dioxide and turns it into a widely-used chemical: methanol.

Technologies that simply capture carbon dioxide that then needs to be stored in some secure location are difficult to implement from a cost perspective. The PNNL researchers believe that turning CO2 into methanol can provide the financial incentive for widespread implementation. Methanol can be used as a fuel, a solvent, or an important ingredient in plastics, paint, construction materials, and car parts.

The system is designed to be installed in fossil fuel-fired power plants as well as cement and steel plants. Using a capture solvent developed by PNNL, the system grabs carbon dioxide molecules before they are emitted and converts them into methanol. Creating methanol from CO2is nothing new, but capturing the carbon dioxide and converting into methanol in one continuously flowing system is new.

More work is needed to optimize and scale the process and it may be several years before it is ready for commercial deployment.

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Scientists Unveil Least Costly Carbon Capture System to Date

Photo, posted November 25, 2022, courtesy of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Conservation via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Agrivoltaics | Earth Wise

November 15, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a study last year at Oregon State University, co-developing land for both solar photovoltaic power and agriculture could provide 20% of total electricity generation in the United States with an investment of less than 1% of the annual U.S. budget. Widespread installation of agrivoltaic systems could reduce carbon emissions by 330,000 tons annually and create more than 100,000 jobs in rural communities.

Agrivoltaics could provide the synergistic combination of more food, more energy, lower water demand, lower carbon emissions, and improved local prosperity. The problem with agrivoltaics to date is that the existing implementations have used solar arrays designed strictly for electricity generation rather than to be used in combination with agriculture. They are not that well suited to co-exist with growing crops or grazing animals.

A new project is underway at Oregon State that will help researchers to optimize agrivoltaic systems. The five-acre Solar Harvest Project is being built at the university’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon in partnership with the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative.

The solar array for the project is designed specifically for agrivoltaics research and uses panels that are more spread out and able to rotate to a near vertical position to allow farm equipment to pass through. The project will allow researchers to study the impact of solar panels on soil health, water use, and plant physiology and yields.

Electricity generated from the 326-kW solar system will be available for purchase by Oregon State and community members.

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Construction starts on Oregon State agrivoltaics farm that will merge agriculture and solar energy

Photo, posted April 5, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Liquid Fuel From The Sun

February 21, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Most forms of energy we use ultimately come from the sun in one way or another. Even fossil fuels are the end product of millions of years of plant life that captured solar energy. The advantage fossil fuels have over direct solar power is that they are, in fact, fuels and therefore can be stored for use when needed.

Scientists in Sweden have now developed a specialized fluid that absorbs some of the sun’s energy, holds it for months or even years, and then releases it when needed. This solar thermal fuel is like a rechargeable battery for heat rather than electricity.

The special fluid is pumped through transparent tubes where ultraviolet light from the sun excites its molecules into an energized state. A compound called norbornadiene is converted into quadricyclane. The quadricyclane is a quite stable substance until it is passed over a cobalt-based catalyst, which causes it to turn back into norbornadiene and release copious amounts of heat.

Such a solar thermal fuel could be stored in uninsulated tanks in homes or factories or piped or trucked to where it was needed. It could then be used for water heaters, dishwashers, or clothes driers. The room temperature fluid quickly warms to about 183 degrees when passed over the catalyst, plenty warm enough for heating a home or office. Both the fuel and the catalyst are damaged very little by the reactions, so the process can be recycled many times.

There is much development work needed to optimize shelf life, energy density, good recyclability and other properties before this technology can be commercialized but there are at least 15 groups around the world now studying this intriguing way to get liquid fuel from the sun.

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Scientists transform sunlight into a liquid fuel that can be stored for 18 years

Photo, posted August 17, 2009, courtesy of Hiromichi Torihara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.