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An Environmental Victory In Cameroon | Earth Wise

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The Ebo Forest in Cameroon is one of the last intact forests in central Africa and is a biodiversity hotspot, home to hundreds of rare plants and animal species, including tool-using Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, western gorillas, forest elephants, red colobus monkeys, and giant goliath frogs.  The 600 square miles of mountain slopes and river valleys are covered by thick tree canopies that shelter a fascinating array of species.

This past July, Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute signed a decree that turned half of the Ebo Forest into a so-called forest management unit, meaning that the government could begin to sell logging concessions.

However, on August 11, Ngute, at the direction of President Paul Biya, withdrew the decree, suspending any logging plans.  President Biya also ordered a delay to reclassify an additional 160,000 acres of the Ebo, which might have opened up even more forest for logging.

Apart from its rich biodiversity, the Ebo Forest is culturally and societally important for the Banen Indigenous people, who consider it to be their sacred ancestral home.  The Banen were ousted from the forest in the 1960s but took up settlements just a few miles from its borders.  They still rely on the forest for food and medicines.  Meanwhile, the proximity of the forest to big cities makes it an easy target for bushmeat poachers.

Both conservation groups and indigenous leaders welcomed the withdrawal of the decree but remain concerned about the future of the Ebo Forest.  Conservation groups hope that the international community will seize the opportunity to work with the government of Cameroon to make the Ebo Forest a permanent showcase for long-term conservation in harmony with very challenged communities.

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Cameroon Cancels Plan to Log Half of the Ebo Forest, a Key Biodiversity Hotspot in Central Africa

Photo, posted September 17, 2005, courtesy of Salva le Foreste via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Native Bees In A Honeybee World | Earth Wise

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There is a great deal of attention on the plight of bees and other pollinators.  Much of that focuses on the problems plaguing the large, domesticated honeybee colonies that are trucked from region to region to pollinate everything from almonds to fruit trees.  Managed bee colonies have recently been losing more than 40% of their population over the course of a year.  But overall, honeybees are still relatively safe. They are a globally distributed, domesticated species and are not remotely threatened with extinction.

But another group of bees – native bees – faces a different range of threats, most linked to habitat loss.   Worldwide, roughly 20,000 native bee species have evolved over millions of years to thrive in countless habitats, where they have specialized in pollinating specific flowers and plants – in some cases just a single plant.

Scientists have estimated that, globally, 1 in 6 bee species is regionally extinct. In the United States there are about 4,000 native bee species, most of which are solitary bees that nest in the ground or cavities, with many that require just one or a few plant species for sustenance. At least 23 percent of U.S. native bees have declined, with bees in areas with heavy commodity-crop production particularly hard hit due to habitat loss and pesticide use. Other threats to native bees include climate-driven sea-level rise and increased temperatures, loss of host plants, and competition and disease from non-native honeybees. 50% of Midwestern native bee species disappeared from their historic ranges in the last 100 years.   Four of our bumblebee species declined 96% in the last 20 years, and three species are believed to already be extinct. 

Native bees are in big trouble.

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Backyard Battle: Helping Native Bees Thrive in a Honeybee World

Photo, posted December 2, 2017, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Artificial Aquatic Polyps | Earth Wise

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Corals are often mistaken for rocks because of their hardened surfaces.  And, since they attach or “take root” to the sea floor, they are often mistaken for plants.  But unlike rocks, corals are alive.  And unlike plants, corals do not make their own food.  Corals are actually animals. 

Most of these structures that we call “coral” are made up of hundreds to thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps.  A coral polyp, which is often no thicker than a nickel, has a saclike body and mouth that is encircled by stinging tentacles.  Polyps are responsible for a host of ecosystem services, including nourishing corals, and aiding coral survival by generating self-made currents through the motion of their soft bodies. 

Inspired by these marine organisms, researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have collaborated to develop an artificial aquatic polyp capable of removing contaminants from water.  The 1 square centimeter wireless robot polyp can attract, grasp, and release objects, moving under the influence of a magnetic field and whose “tentacles” are triggered by light. 

The next step for the researchers is to see if the technology can be successfully scaled up from laboratory to pilot scale.  In order for that to happen, the team has to design an array of artificial polyps capable of working harmoniously together.   

Corals are an incredibly important part of ocean ecosystems.  And while it remains to be seen how much value artificial polyps can achieve in future applications, it serves as another example of scientists emulating nature to create more sustainable designs. 

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Aquatic robots can remove contaminant particles from water

An artificial aquatic polyp that wirelessly attracts, grasps, and releases objects

Photo, posted April 14, 2011, courtesy of Derek Keats via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Hacking Photosynthesis | Earth Wise

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A team led by the University of Illinois has been pursuing a project called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency or RIPE, which has the aim of improving photosynthesis in order to provide farmers with higher-yielding crops in an increasingly challenging climate.  Photosynthesis is the natural, sunlight-powered process that plants use to convert carbon dioxide into sugars that fuel growth, development, and for us, crop yield.

If we think of photosynthesis as a factory line composed of multiple machines, the growth of plants is limited by the slowest machines in the line.  The RIPE project has identified some steps in photosynthesis that are slower than others and are attempting to enable plants to build more machines to speed up those slower steps.

The researchers modeled a total of 170 steps in the process of photosynthesis to identify how plants could manufacture sugars more efficiently.  In the study, the team increased crop growth by 27% by resolving two constraints:  one in the first part of photosynthesis where plants turn light energy into chemical energy and one in the second part when carbon dioxide is turned into sugars.

The researchers effectively hacked photosynthesis by adding a more efficient transport protein from algae to enhance the energy conversion process. 

In the greenhouse, these changes improved crop productivity by 52%, but in field trials, which are a more important test, these photosynthetic hacks boosted crop production by 27%.

Ultimately, the team hopes to translate these discoveries to a series of staple food crops, such as cassava, cowpea, corn, soybean and rice, which are needed to feed the world’s growing population this century.

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Photosynthetic hacks can boost crop yield, conserve water

Photo, posted June 14, 2017, courtesy of Alex Holyoake via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A New Carbon Capture Technique | Earth Wise

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Carbon dioxide emissions by electricity generating plants, fossil-fuel burning vehicles, and industry produce about 2/3 of the greenhouse gases driving climate change.  Without decreasing these emissions, the earth will continue to get warmer, sea levels will continue to rise, and the world will face more droughts, floods, wildfires, famine and conflict.

Electrification of vehicles and reliance upon renewable energy sources will ultimately drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels and the resultant emissions, but that transition may take too long to reverse the direction of climate change.  In the meantime, there is a great need to find effective and efficient ways to capture emissions from fossil fuel plants. 

Recent research at the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and ExxonMobil has developed a new technique for carbon capture.  The technique makes use of metal-organic framework (or MOF) technology.  An MOF, modified with nitrogen-containing amine molecules, captures CO2 and then low-temperature steam is used to flush out the CO2 either to be used or sequestered underground.

Experiments demonstrated the technique to have a six-times greater capacity for removing CO2 from the flue gas of a refinery than current amine-based technology.  It selectively removed 90% of the emitted CO2. 

There is a relatively limited market for captured CO2, so power plants using the capture technology would likely pump the CO2 into the ground, or otherwise sequester it.  The cost of doing this sort of emission scrubbing would have to be facilitated by government policies, such as carbon trading or a carbon tax, which would provide the necessary economic incentive for doing carbon capture and sequestration.

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New technique to capture CO2 could reduce power plant greenhouse gases

Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

More Carbon Dioxide From Thawing Permafrost | Earth Wise

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The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the planet.  Stories about the loss of polar ice and hundred-degree temperatures in Siberia have become commonplace.  One of the most troubling aspects of the warming Arctic is the thawing of permafrost.  Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for at least two years; some of it has been frozen for tens or hundreds or even thousands of years.  Found under a layer of soil, permafrost is composed of rock, soil, sediments, and varying amounts of ice.  It stores the carbon-based remains of plants and animals that froze before they could decompose.  Permafrost covers almost a quarter of North America, but it is starting to thaw.

Scientists estimate that there are more than 16,000 billion tons of carbon locked away in Arctic permafrost, which is almost double the amount of carbon that is currently in the atmosphere.  Climate models predict that the warming of the Arctic could lead to 5 to 15% of that carbon to be emitted as carbon dioxide by the year 2,100, which would be enough to raise global temperatures by 0.3 to 0.4 degrees Celsius.

New research has increased this estimate because it includes a key pathway for CO2 to enter the atmosphere that earlier models ignored.   When carbon from thawing permafrost escapes into Arctic lakes and rivers, it is oxidized by ultraviolet and visible light and it then escapes into the atmosphere as CO2.  This process is known as photomineralization and is estimated to raise permafrost-related CO2 emissions by 14%.

Recent studies project that with every 1-degree Celsius increase in temperature, 1.5 million square miles of permafrost could be lost through thawing.

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Climate Models Underestimate CO2 Emissions from Permafrost by 14 Percent, Study Finds

Photo, posted July 7, 2014, courtesy of NPS Climate Change via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Living In Extreme Heat | Earth Wise

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Global climate change has already left observable effects on the planet.  Glaciers have shrunk, trees are flowering sooner, plant and animal ranges have shifted, and so on. Many effects of climate change that scientists had predicted in the past are now occurring.  The loss of sea ice, intensifying heat waves, and accelerating sea level rise are some examples.

According to a new study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, climate change is going to affect humans earlier, harder, and more widely than previously projected.  The research team found that one billion people will be either displaced or endure insufferable heat for every one degree Celsius rise in global temperatures.  

Under a worst case climate scenario, land that one third of the world’s population currently calls home will be as hot as the hottest parts of the Sahara desert within 50 years.  Even under a more optimistic climate outlook, 1.2 billion people will still be exposed to temperatures outside the climate niche in which humans have thrived for at least 6,000 years.

The majority of the human population has always lived in regions where the average annual temperatures were between 43 degrees Fahrenheit and 82 degrees Fahrenheit.  These are ideal temperatures for human health and for food production.  But this temperature range is shrinking and shifting as a result of climate change. 

The study’s authors predict there will be more change in the next 50 years than there has been in the past 6,000 years.  They hope their findings will convince policymakers to accelerate their plans for emissions reductions and other climate mitigation strategies.   

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Future of the human climate niche

One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study

Photo, posted November 22, 2008, courtesy of Ronnie Finger via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Largest U.S. Solar Project | Earth Wise

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The largest solar project to date in the U.S. has received final approval from the Department of the Interior.   A $1 billion, 690-megawatt solar array will be built on federal land in the Mojave Desert in Nevada.   The project includes battery energy storage and is expected to produce enough electricity to power more than a quarter million homes.  It will also offset the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to about 83,000 cars a year.

The current largest U.S. installation, the Solar Star Farm in Southern California, completed in 2015, generates 579 megawatts of power.

Construction of the Gemini Solar Array is expected to start sometime this year and be completed by 2022 or 2023.  The first phase of the project will cover 11 square miles of desert land about 30 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Some conservation groups have fought against the project, saying that it will destroy thousands of acres of habitat for endangered desert tortoises as well as other rare plant and animal species.  The groups agree that solar energy is a good thing but are convinced that the location selected is the wrong one. 

Interior Department representatives note that the Gemini Project will provide jobs and economic growth at a time when many Americans in general and Nevada citizens in particular are struggling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project is projected to generate $713 million in economic activity and employ about 2,000 people during construction.  However, once it is up and running, it will employ just 19 full-time workers.

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The Largest Solar Project in the U.S. Gets Green Light

Photo, posted January 26, 2014, courtesy of Jannes Glas via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plants Paying For Biofuels | Earth Wise

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Biofuels are an important element in broader strategies to replace petroleum in transportation fuels like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.  The idea is that biofuels recycle carbon by getting it from growing plants rather than from fossil sources.  The biggest problem with biofuels is that they cost more than conventional petroleum fuels, so there is economic incentive to keep burning the fossil fuels.

One strategy to make biofuels cost competitive is to have the plants provide additional economic benefits beyond being a feedstock for fuel.  This in principle can be done by engineering plants to produce valuable chemical compounds, or bioproducts, as they grow.  Bioproducts include such things as flavoring agents and fragrances as well as biodegradable plastic.  These bioproducts can be extracted from the plants and then the remaining plant material can be converted to fuel. 

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently published a study to determine what quantities of bioproducts plants need to produce to result in cost-effective biofuel production.

The study looked at a compound called limonene, which is used for flavoring and fragrance.  They calculated that if this compound was accumulated at 0.6% of the biomass dry weight, it would offer net economic benefits to biorefineries.  This corresponds to recovering 130 pounds of limonene from 10 tons of sorghum on an acre of land.

Such quantities are completely practical but, on the other hand, none of these substances are needed in huge quantities. Just six refineries could supply the world with limonene.  So, fuel crops would need to be engineered to produce a broad range of bioproducts to enable a viable cost-effective biofuel industry.

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Making Biofuels Cheaper by Putting Plants to Work

Photo, posted September 28, 2019, courtesy of Michele Dorsey Walfred via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Conservation In Vermont | Earth Wise

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In recent times, Vermont and neighboring states have been losing forest land to development at a rate of almost 1,500 acres per year.  With forest fragmentation gaining ground across New England, conserving land for future generations of people, wildlife, and plants has become both increasingly important and increasingly difficult.

According to a new study published by researchers at the University of Vermont, the state has already protected a third of the highest priority targeted lands needed to protect and connect valuable wildlife habitats and corridors.  The protected lands amount to 1.3 million acres.

Most of the currently conserved lands are forested.  However, there are high-priority targeted surface water and riparian areas – ponds, rivers, shorelines, and wetlands – and not nearly enough of these have been protected.  (Many animals require zones along waterways in which to travel between the habitats they need to survive).

The state of Vermont and a number of partners have laid out a comprehensive and thoughtful vision that would ensure that Vermont remains a good place for all forms of life in the future.  The new study provides a crucial benchmark of current levels of forest protection to help prioritize future conservation actions. 

Three groups dominate in responsibility for the state’s protected lands:  the federal government, the state government, and private non-profit organizations.  (Each of these account for roughly a third of existing protected lands).

Going forward, Vermont’s nonprofits will play an increasingly important role in land conservation, especially in continuing to protect those areas that are rich with species diversity.  Nonprofits are engaging more and more deeply in restoring wetlands that were previously degraded, planting new forests along river shores, and protecting unique natural communities while also protecting working forests and farmland.

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Vermont Has Conserved One Third of the Land Needed for an Ecologically Functional Future

Photo, posted June 15, 2014, courtesy of Wesley Carr via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Safer Ways To Be Blue | Earth Wise

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Creating blue fabric has always been desirable for people.  It has never been easy, but the original way to do it – by using indigo from plants – has been around for 6,000 years.  Natural indigo is a rare commodity, often referred to as blue gold.  In the 19th century, synthetic indigo was developed and ultimately replaced the natural substance.

Synthetic indigo dye is not an environmentally friendly substance.  In order to get it to adhere to fabrics, substances called mordants are required.  These are commonly made from metals like chromium and aluminum, are generally toxic, and kill off plants exposed to factory wastewater, destroy ecosystems, and poison drinking water.   The dye itself is slow to decompose and is bad for the environment. 

Recently, an organic chemist in Brazil named Erick Bastos has figured out a new way to produce blue dye using, of all things, a pigment from beets.  By extracting the pigment and tweaking its molecular pattern, he has managed to transform the red color of the pigment to a brilliant blue.

Beet roots contain pigments called betalains and just a tiny amount of beetroot juice can render a lot of dye.  By mixing these pigments with a couple of ingredients, a chemical reaction occurred, and the color transformed from red, to yellow, then green, and finally blue.

Testing so far on human liver cells, retinal cells, and developing zebrafish has revealed no toxicity.  The results suggest that the new dye – dubbed BeetBlue – is safe.  Further testing is needed to know if it is truly safe and whether it will last in the wash.  Meanwhile, Professor Bastos is not patenting the dye and hopes it will provide a better way to be blue.

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How Do You Make a Less Toxic Blue Dye? Start With Red Beets

Photo, posted November 7, 2005, courtesy of Lain Buchanan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Recycling Coal Plants | Earth Wise

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Over 300 coal-fired power plants in the US have stopping burning coal over the past decade.  Only about 224 plants still produce power by burning coal.  As a result, a new sort of recycling industry is taking shape:  repurposing of coal plants.

Across the country, utilities are finding ways to redevelop these facilities.  Some are industrial in nature and others a far cry from their original purpose.

In January, Beloit College in Wisconsin opened a student union and recreation center in what used to be an Alliant Energy coal-fired power plant.  On the southern coast of Massachusetts, a shuttered 1,600 MW coal plant is being demolished to make way for a logistical port and support center for a planned wind farm 35 miles off shore.

In Independence, Missouri, the city is considering competing plans to recycle the Blue Valley Power plant.  It may become a 50 MW battery storage facility, or possibly a biofuel plant.

Another popular reuse strategy is data centers.  Data centers use tremendous amounts of power and therefore can make use of the former coal plants’ capacity to handle large amounts of electricity.

Retired coal-fired plants have built-in infrastructure and components that can be repurposed for new industry.  The plants typically have access to rail, ports and waterways, as well as proximity to good highway transportation.  The electrical grids to which they are connected can be reused for solar or wind farms at the site.

Given that coal plants are continuing to close, the potential to redevelop them in various ways continues to grow as well.   There is a surge in interest in coal plant redevelopment because these facilities are assets of value.

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Coal-fired power plants finding new uses as data centers, clean energy hubs

Photo, posted January 10, 2017, courtesy of Rusty Clark via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Tropical Forests As Carbon Sinks | Earth Wise

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Tropical forests are an important part of the global carbon cycle because they take up and store large amounts of carbon dioxide.  Because of this, deforestation in the Amazon and other tropical forests is a major contributor to the growing CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Therefore, climate models need to accurately take into account the ability of tropical forests to sequester carbon.  It turns out that this is not such a simple matter.  A new study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis sought to determine how much detail about tropical forests is needed in order to make valid assumptions about the strength of forest carbon sinks.

They looked at the role of both biotic factors – differences between plant species that are responsible for capturing more or less carbon from the atmosphere – and abiotic factors – local environmental factors like soil properties that also influence carbon sink strength.

It is generally assumed that more diverse forest communities capture available resources more efficiently as a result of complementary characteristics and preferences of certain species to specific conditions.  Factors like soil texture and chemistry are also important.  In general, the results show that abiotic and biotic factors interact with one another to determine how much carbon can be stored by the ecosystem.

Traditional projections of the role of tropical forests in storing carbon mostly rely on remote sensing techniques that integrate over large spatial areas.  The new study shows that there can be large differences in the carbon storing ability of tropical forests and that more detailed models are needed to produce more accurate projections.

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Shedding light on how much carbon tropical forests can absorb

Photo, posted July 17, 2014, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

An Incentive For Carbon Capture | Earth Wise

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Convincing industries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions has not been easy.  Many approaches have been debated, including carbon taxes, carbon tax-and-trade schemes, and passing a giant Green New Deal.  Most economists agree that putting a price on carbon is likely to be the most effective approach.

But there is already in place an adjustment to the US tax code that is more of a carrot than a stick.  It is a tax credit that is designed to make capturing CO2 a financial winner for a number of high-emitting industries.  The credit, called 45Q, was enacted in February 2018.

The 45Q credit earns industrial manufacturers $50 per metric ton of CO2 stored permanently or $35 per ton if the CO2 is put to use.  An earlier credit for capturing carbon dioxide was limited to only $20 per metric ton and was capped at 75 million tons.  Some large fossil fuel companies did make use of the earlier credit.

The new version does not have a cap, but to qualify, companies need to start constructing carbon-capture facilities within 7 years and have 12 years to claim their money.

Companies with emission-intensive operations are busy figuring out how to take advantage of the credit.  These include cement makers, steel and power plants, corn ethanol producers, and ammonia plants.

Because the credit mandates that companies start constructing their carbon-capture facilities within seven years, most companies will tend to rely on mature technologies.  But the tax credit should also drive demand for next-generation carbon-capture technologies, of which there are many under development.  Saving lots of money on taxes is likely to lure US companies to capture carbon dioxide.

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45Q, the tax credit that’s luring US companies to capture CO2

Photo, posted October 2, 2014, courtesy of Sask Power via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Metal From Plants | Earth Wise

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Large amounts of metal in soil are generally bad for plants.  But there are about 700 species of plants that thrive in metal-rich soils.  These plants don’t just tolerate minerals from soil in their bodies but actually seem to hoard them to ridiculous levels.

In areas where soils are naturally rich in nickel, typically in the tropics and Mediterranean basin, plants have either died off or have adapted to become nickel loving.  Slicing open a tree with this adaptation produces a neon blue-green sap that is actually one-quarter nickel, which is far more concentrated than the ore that typically feeds commercial nickel smelters.

A group of researchers from the University of Melbourne and other institutions is investigating whether this phenomenon is not just interesting but might also be of real commercial value.  They established a plot of land in a rural village in Borneo and have been harvesting growth from nickel-hyper accumulating plants.  Every six to twelve months, a farmer shaves off one foot of growth from these plants and either burns or squeezes the metal out.  After a short purification, they end up with about 500 pounds of nickel citrate, potentially worth thousands of dollars on international markets.

Phytomining – extracting minerals from hyper-accumulating plants – cannot fully replace traditional mining techniques.  But the technology could enable areas with toxic soils to be made productive and might allow mining companies to use plants to clean up their former mines and waste while actually collecting some revenue.

There are other plants that suck up cobalt, zinc, and similarly crucial metals.  With growing demand for metals, perhaps it is time to harvest them on the farm.

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Down on the Farm That Harvests Metal From Plants

Photo courtesy of the University of Queensland.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Coastal Plants And Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Rising sea levels and the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are leaving observable effects on beaches, cliffs, and coastal infrastructures all around the world.  But a new study suggests that the impact of climate change on coastal plant communities needs more attention. 

According to research recently published in the journal Annals of Botany, coastal plants are a critical element of global sea defense.  But coastal plants are increasingly under threat from flooding, erosion, and other human-induced effects of climate change.  Habitats like salt marshes, mangrove forests, sand dunes, and kelp beds make important contributions  to coastal protection.

The research was led by scientists from the University of Plymouth, in conjunction with researchers at Utrecht University and Manchester Metropolitan University.

The study follows a recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found that anthropogenic climate change poses a severe threat to estuaries and coastal ecosystems.  

Conservative estimates of the capital investments needed to combat rising seas and intensifying storms run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming decades.  However, coastal vegetation could offer a dynamic, natural, and relatively low-cost defense strategy at a fraction of the cost when compared with the cost of so-called hard defenses like concrete walls and barriers. 

According to the research team, identifying the key species and habitats for coastal defense and how coasts can be protected and promoted is critical.  More long-term monitoring is also needed in order to better understand and predict where and how storms and other effects of climate change will impact coastal ecosystems. 

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The gathering storm: optimizing management of coastal ecosystems in the face of a climate-driven threat

Losing coastal plant communities to climate change will weaken sea defences

Photo, posted September 14, 2018, courtesy of Dennis Jarvis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Figuring Out Photosynthesis | Earth Wise

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Plants have been harnessing the sun’s energy for hundreds of millions of years. Algae and photosynthetic bacteria have been doing the same for even longer, all with remarkable efficiency and resiliency. 

People have used the energy of the sun in one way or another for millennia, but only recently have we gotten sophisticated about it by using devices like solar panels and sensors.  And we still have a long way to go to get anywhere close to the efficiency of plants. It’s no wonder, then, that scientists have long sought to understand exactly how photosynthesis works.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, and collaborators at Washington University in St. Louis, recently solved a critical part of the age-old mystery of photosynthesis, studying the initial, ultra-fast events through which photosynthetic proteins capture light and use it to initiate a series of electron transfer reactions.  Electrons in plants have two possible pathways to travel but only use one.   

But as a result of their efforts, the scientists are now closer than ever to being able to design electron transfer systems in which they can send an electron down a pathway of their choosing. 

By gaining the ability to harness the flow of energy, it may be possible to incorporate new design principles in non-biological energy systems. This could allow us to greatly improve the efficiency of many solar-powered devices, potentially making them far smaller. Understanding the intricacies of photosynthesis creates a tremendous opportunity to open up completely new disciplines of light-driven biochemical reactions, perhaps even ones that haven’t been envisioned by nature.

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Scientists unravel mystery of photosynthesis

Photo, posted June 14, 2017, courtesy of Alex Holyoake via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Jet Fuel From Acetone | Earth Wise

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Acetone is a common organic solvent.  It is used to make plastic, fibers, drugs, and other chemicals.  It is commonly used by consumers as nail polish remover.  Acetone is a manufactured chemical, but it is also found naturally in the environment in plants, among other places. There are now companies that produce acetone entirely by fermentation of plant feedstocks, such as corn.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have now developed a process by which acetone can be converted into a fuel additive that can improve the performance of petroleum-based jet fuel, providing both environmental and economic benefits.

The process takes biomass-derived acetone and converts it to isophorone, which they produce by a process called photochemical cycloaddition that creates more complex hydrocarbons.  They then use ultraviolet light to convert the isophorone into cyclobutane, which is a type of hydrocarbon with high energy density that is suitable for aviation fuel applications.

Acetone itself is quite volatile and is unsuitable for fuel applications.  It also cannot be added directly to any fuel supply since it can dissolve engine parts and o-rings.  Cyclobutane, on the other hand, is a safer and more energy-dense fuel that can be a replacement for additives that require high-pressure hydrogen treatment in their synthesis.  Currently, most hydrogen is produced by a process that generates carbon dioxide.  The new conversion process does not result in carbon emissions.

According to the Los Alamos researchers, their process can result in a domestically generated product that will provide environmental benefits, create domestic jobs, improve U.S. energy security, and further U.S. global leadership in bioenergy technologies.

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Acetone plus light creates a green jet fuel additive

Photo, posted December 18, 2007, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Storing CO2 Underground | Earth Wise

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Capturing the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants and factories and safely storing it so it can’t enter the atmosphere has long been an attractive and desirable goal.  Even though the use of renewable energy sources has been expanding rapidly, it will still be a long time before fossil fuel plants go away entirely.

The most widely considered method of carbon capture and storage is underground storage.  The idea is to send the carbon dioxide through a pipeline to a place where underground rock formations can store it safely and permanently.  Typically, it would be pumped deep underground – often more than half a mile down – and the site would be monitored to make sure the CO2 doesn’t leak back up to the atmosphere or into the water table.

A new study looked at how much carbon dioxide the suitable geological formations on Earth can store.  The conclusion of the study is that drilling about 12,000 carbon storage wells globally could provide enough capacity to store 6 to 7 billion tons of CO2 a year by 2050.  That is about 13% of global emissions.

Drilling 12,000 wells is equivalent to the amount of oil and gas drilling that has taken place just in the Gulf of Mexico over the last 70 years.  The study identified locations worldwide that could handle the pressures associated with storing injected carbon dioxide.

So far, less than two dozen projects exist that capture and store carbon dioxide from fossil fuel plants.  In total, these plants can capture about 36 million tons a year, which is far less than what is needed.  But the new study at least shows that finding places to put captured carbon is not a problem.

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Ample Geological Capacity Exists to Store Large Quantities of Captured CO2

Photo courtesy of Equinor.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Conspicuous Consumption

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Human civilization consumes vast amounts of material.   The Circle Economy think tank actually puts some numbers on it.  According to their latest report, the amount of material consumed by humanity has passed 100 billion tons every year.  So, on average, every person on Earth uses more than 13 tons of materials per year.

That number has quadrupled since 1970, which is far faster than the population, which has only doubled during that time.  In the past two years alone, consumption has jumped by more than 8%.  While this has been going on, the proportion being recycled has been falling.

Of the 100 billion tons of materials, half of the total is sand, clay, gravel, and cement used for building, along with other minerals used for fertilizer.  Coal, oil and gas make up 15% and metal ores 10%. The final quarter are plants and trees used for food and fuel.  About 40% of all materials are turned into housing.  A third of the annual materials consumed remain in use, such as in buildings or vehicles.  But 15% is emitted into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases and a third is treated as waste.

The global emergencies of climate change and disappearing wildlife have been driven by the unsustainable extraction of fossil fuels, metals, building materials, and trees.  The authors of the report warn that if we continue to treat the world’s resources as limitless, we are heading for a global disaster.

The Circle Economy think tank promotes the idea of a circular economy in which renewable energy supports systems where waste and pollution are reduced to zero.  Some nations are taking steps towards circular economies, while others are not.  This is a problem we can’t allow to be unaddressed.

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Web Links

World Consumes 100 Billion Tons of Materials Every Year, Report Finds

Photo, posted March 13, 2015, courtesy of Joyce Cory via Flickr.

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