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Hidden hydrogen

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The idea of using hydrogen as a fuel or an energy source has been around for a long time.  Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, but most of it is locked up in various chemical compounds, such as water.  Hydrogen is a clean fuel; burning it or using it to generate electricity in a fuel cell produces no greenhouse gas emissions.  But more than 99% of the hydrogen that people current produce is obtained by methods that result in greenhouse gas emissions.

A new study by scientists at the University of Oxford, the University of Durham in the UK, and the University of Toronto looks at geological environments in which naturally occurring hydrogen could be hiding.  According to the study, over the last billion years, the Earth’s continental crust is likely to have produced enough hydrogen to satisfy the energy needs of modern society for 170,000 years.

Much of that hydrogen is likely to have been lost or is inaccessible; most of it is not economically feasible to extract.  But even the relatively small amount of hydrogen left could provide thousands of years of energy for us.  We just have to be able to find it.

The researchers have developed what they call an “exploration recipe” which identifies where natural hydrogen might be located as well as where it could be commercially feasible to extract.  These places with hydrogen have so-called reservoir rocks and geologic formations that prevent the gas from leaking into the atmosphere.

A few such places have already been identified such as one in Albania.  There are various candidates to explore, even including an area in Kansas.  The study’s authors have founded a company whose mission is to find these natural sources of hydrogen.

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Scientists Say Hidden Hydrogen Could Power the World for 170,000 Years

Photo, posted October 4, 2019, courtesy of Tony Sprezzatura via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Extending the shelf life of produce

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More than 30% of the world’s food is lost after it has been harvested.  That’s enough to feed more than a billion people.  Much of that loss is fruits and vegetables that go bad before they can be eaten.

Refrigeration is the most common way to preserve foods, but the energy and infrastructure required is not always available, especially in less affluent regions of the world.

Researchers at MIT and Singapore-based collaborators have demonstrated that they can extend the shelf life of harvested plants by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable microneedles.

Silk microneedles are tiny, nontoxic, and biodegradable and represent a means of delivering nutrients to plants without triggering a stress response.

Melatonin is a natural hormone that plants already use.  Injecting it was shown to extend vegetables’ shelf life.  The tests used pak choy, an important Asian crop that is very perishable.  Untreated plants at room temperature yellowed within two or three days.  In contrast, treated plants stayed green for five days.  Overall, treated plants retained saleable value for 8 days.  Refrigerated plants had their shelf life extended considerably as well.  However, the most significant value of the technique is that it could enhance the shelf life of perishable produce like pak choy without needing access to refrigeration.

The dose of melatonin delivered to the plants is so low that it is fully metabolized by the crops, so it would not significantly increase the amount normally present in the food.  People would not ingest more melatonin than usual.  The researchers believe that their technique should work with all kinds of produce.

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A new technology for extending the shelf life of produce

Photo, posted May 6, 2010, courtesy of Jessica Spengler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

New nuclear power for New York

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Nuclear power has been around since the 1950s, but it has fallen out of favor in recent decades, in part due to a couple of traumatic disasters at nuclear power plants.  In fact, only two new nuclear power plants have been built in the US in the past 30 years, and they took a very long time and an enormous amount of money to build.

However, in recent times there has been a great deal of developmental work on nuclear power.  Such newer technologies as small modular reactors, molten salt reactors, light water reactors, and more hold promise for safer, less expensive, and higher performance nuclear power.

In late June, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she has instructed the New York Power Authority to develop and construct a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant in Upstate New York.  The plant is to produce 1 GW of power, about half of what the decommissioned Indian Point Power Plant produced when it provided significant amounts of power to New York City residents.

Renewed interest in nuclear power has emerged in part because of the soaring electricity demand from AI data centers.  Companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all begun investing in nuclear power for this reason.

NYPA is instructed to begin evaluating technologies, business models, and locations for the new power plant and will seek to secure key partnerships needed for the project.  As things stand, it is not known what technology the plant will use, where in Upstate New York it will be located, how much it will cost to build, who will pay for it, and how long it will take to build. 

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New York Again Embraces Nuclear Power With Plans to Build New Plant

Photo courtesy of Constellation Energy.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solutions for cleaner air

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Air pollution is a problem for most of the world’s cities.  Many cities in India and China continue to face major public health crises due to their polluted air.  American cities also don’t escape from polluted air.  Californian cities still struggle with smog despite decades of effort to reduce it.  But one major city that has waged a successful battle against air pollution is Paris, France.

Over the past 20 years, Paris has transformed its air by trading automobile roads for bike lanes, adding green spaces, and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces.

According to independent air quality tracking, levels of fine particulate matter in Paris have decreased 55% since 2005 and nitrogen dioxide levels have fallen 50%.  A combination of regulations and public policies including steps to limit traffic and ban the most polluting vehicles have produced these results. 

Despite pushback from various sources such as car owners’ associations, suburban commuters, and right-leaning politicians, Parisians have continued to pursue cleaner air policies.  In April, Parisians voted to turn an additional 500 streets over to pedestrians.  Last year, Paris sharply increased parking fees for SUVs, forcing drivers to pay three times more than they would for smaller cars. 

Ambitious policymaking can directly improve health in large cities.  As one former advisor to the city explains, the French capital has developed “an urban policy based on well-being.”

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Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.

Photo, posted June 3, 2018, courtesy of Francisco Anzola via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Sun powered carbon capture

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As the world struggles to implement technologies and find the political will to reduce carbon emissions, there are also ongoing efforts to find ways to capture carbon from emitting sources and from the atmosphere itself.  After capturing carbon dioxide, there is then the need to safely store it or make use of it.

Current methods for capturing and then releasing carbon dioxide are expensive and energy intensive.  In fact, some methods even require the use of fossil fuels.  Recently, researchers at Cornell University have developed a method for capturing carbon dioxide that is powered by sunlight.

The Cornell method mimics the mechanisms that plants use to store carbon which involves using sunlight to make a reactive enol molecule that grabs carbon dioxide.  

Existing chemical-based carbon capture techniques make use of amines, which are organic ammonia-derived compounds that react selectively with carbon dioxide.  But amines are not stable in the presence of oxygen and don’t last, which necessitates the energy-intensive production of more and more amines.

The Cornell method uses the same method that the plant enzyme RuBisCo uses in photosynthesis.  It is based on an inexpensive sorbent material that is capable of a high rate of carbon capture.

The researchers tested the system using flue samples from Cornell’s Combined Heat and Power Building, an on-campus power plant that burns natural gas.  The system was successful in isolating carbon dioxide.

Ultimately, they would like to stage the reaction on what looks like a solar panel, but one that would capture carbon instead of generating electricity.

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In a first, system uses sunlight to power carbon capture

Photo, posted August 8, 2015, courtesy of Holly Victoria Norval via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fuel from Corn Waste

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A substantial amount of corn is grown in this country for the purpose of producing ethanol.  The value of doing so is debatable for many reasons.  Nevertheless, the majority of the corn crop is grown for food.  But along with all that corn, there is corn stover.  Stover is the dried stalks, leaves, and other plant parts that remain in the field after the corn itself has been harvested.  Corn stover is the largest quantity of biomass residue in the United States.  Around 250 million tons of it is produced annually and the majority of it is left unused.  Some is used for animal feed and other purposes and has monetary value, but much of it goes to waste.

Scientists at Washington State University have developed a way to produce low-cost sugar from stover that can be used to make biofuels and other bioproducts.

Corn stover is an abundant and cheap source of biomass, which holds great potential as a source of energy and valuable chemicals.  The challenge is to overcome the high cost of processing stover whose complex structural molecules like cellulose and lignin need to be broken down.

The new process uses potassium hydroxide and ammonium sulfite to convert stover into a sugar.  It is a mild-temperature process that allows enzymes to break down the cellulosic polymers in stover into sugar, which can then be fermented into biofuels.  The resulting sugar from the process would be cost-competitive with low-cost imported sugars. The researchers estimate that their patent-pending process could produce sugar that could be sold for as low as 28 cents per pound.

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Scientists discover a new way to convert corn waste into low-cost sugar for biofuel

Photo, posted August 30, 2012, courtesy of Idaho National Laboratory Bioenergy Program via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Self-healing concrete

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Concrete is the most widely used building material on Earth.  It has a dangerous and costly flaw:  it cracks easily.  Cracks in concrete can lead to inconvenient damage or to catastrophic structural failures such as collapses of buildings, bridges, or highways.

Concrete is made by mixing crushed stone and sand with powdered clay and limestone and adding water.  The mixture hardens and once set becomes extremely strong.  However, natural forces like freeze-thaw cycles, drying shrinkage, and heavy loads can cause cracks.  Even very tiny cracks can allow liquids and gases to seep into embedded steel reinforcements causing corrosion and weakness. 

For over 30 years, researchers have investigated microbe-mediated self-healing concrete.  It involves introducing microbial healing agents into cracks and injecting nutrients for the healing agents to produce repair materials.  It is not a very practical solution.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a technique inspired by the behavior of lichen systems. Their system, like lichen, uses a combination of cyanobacteria which turns air and sunlight into food, and filamentous fungi, which produces minerals that seal the cracks. 

In lab tests, the paired microbes were able to grow and produce crack-filling minerals even in challenging environments such as concrete.  If it is possible to produce concrete that can heal itself, it would significantly reduce maintenance costs, extend its longevity, and even protect lives through increased safety.

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Cracking the Code: Deciphering How Concrete Can Heal Itself

Photo, posted May 21, 2009, courtesy of DesignMag via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Our cities are sinking

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A new study by the Columbia University Climate School has found that all of the 28 most populous cities in the United States are sinking to some extent.  This phenomenon of subsidence is not just taking place in cities on the coast, where relative sea level is an issue, but also in cities in the interior.

The primary cause of subsidence is large-scale groundwater extraction for human use.  When water is withdrawn from aquifers made up of fine-grained sediments, the pore spaces formerly occupied by water can eventually collapse, leading to compaction below and sinkage at the surface.

The fastest sinking city in the US is Houston, with more than 40% of its area subsiding more than 5 millimeters a year and 12% sinking at twice that rate.  Some local spots are going down as much as 5 centimeters a year.   These seem like very small numbers but the fact that the subsidence is often not uniform across an urban area means that there are stresses to building foundations and other infrastructure.  Parts of Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and San Francisco have particularly fast sinking zones.

There are other causes of subsidence.  In Texas, pumping of oil and gas adds to the phenomenon.  A 2023 study found that New York City’s more than one million buildings are pressing down on the Earth so hard that they may be contributing to the city’s ongoing subsidence.  About 1% of the total area of the country’s 28 largest cities faces some danger from uneven subsidence.

Overall, some 34 million Americans live in cities affected by subsidence.  Global cities facing especially rapid subsidence include Jakarta, Venice, and here in the U.S., New Orleans.

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All of the Biggest U.S. Cities Are Sinking

Photo, posted December 27, 2012, courtesy of Katie Haugland Bowen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tracking emissions by satellite

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Carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are two of the most problematic human-generated air pollutants that negatively impact air quality, the climate, and human health.  Satellites are an important tool for monitoring emissions of these pollutants, but they have limitations.  For the most part, satellites have limited spatial resolution, meaning that they can’t reliably narrow down the source of emissions sufficiently to pin down a specific location such as a power plant. 

Until now, there have been no instruments that can detect both carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide simultaneously with high spatial resolution.  Often just nitrogen oxide measurements are made, and carbon dioxide levels estimated based on the fact that both are emitted together with typical ratios.

A German research team from the Max Planck Institute and the Heidelberg Institute have developed a technology for the EnMAP environmental satellite to detect both gases with an unprecedented spatial resolution of 30 meters.  Data from the satellite makes it possible to track multiple sources of emission plumes over several tens of kilometers.

The EnMAP system was originally designed for remote sensing of land surfaces.  The new research demonstrates that reliable measurements of trace gases are possible even with an instrument not specifically designed for atmospheric observations.  When using it, it’s possible to determine the distribution of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide in emission plumes from individual power plants.  The ability to measure both gases individually means that conclusions can be drawn about the technology, efficiency, and operating mode of the systems being measured.

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German satellite measures CO2 and NO2 simultaneously from power plant emissions for the first time

Photo, posted September 19, 2020, courtesy of Sandor Somkuti via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Advantages of vertical farming

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Vertical farming has been increasingly used for leafy greens like lettuce and kale, as well as for herbs and a few fruits like strawberries and tomatoes.  A recent study by the Technical University of Munich has investigated the use of vertical farming for a much broader range of foods.  The study looked at the positive effects of vertical farming on both yield and environmental impact.

Traditional agriculture can reach its limits as a result of extreme weather events or in areas of high population density and resultant high demand.   With vertical farming, food can be grown close to consumers independent of weather and can make very efficient use of space.

The Proteins4Singapore study investigated the potential of a 10-layer vertical farming system cultivating crops, algae, mushrooms, insects, fish, and cultivated meat.  Many of these things are not currently part of many people’s diets.  But these foods can increase the protein yield per cultivation area nearly three hundredfold for crops and 6,000-fold for mushrooms and insects. 

Mushrooms and insects are examples of foods that require little light and cultivating them reduces energy consumption and, therefore, associated costs.

The biggest challenges for controlled environment agriculture – which is what vertical farming is – are the high energy demands for cultivation and the social acceptance.  Some of the foods that are especially well-suited to vertical farming – such as algae and insects – are not generally accepted by many consumers.  Controlled environment agriculture can revolutionize food production, but it will take a combination of technological advances, policy initiatives, and public engagement.

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Vertical Farming to increase yields and reduce environmental impact

Photo, posted October 21, 2022, courtesy of Fred Miller / University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Empire Wind resumes

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In April, the Trump Administration issued a stop order for the Empire Wind offshore wind project in New York, pushing the $5 billion project to the brink of collapse.  The project is being built by the giant Norwegian energy company Equinor.  When completed, the wind farm is expected to deliver enough electricity to power 500,000 New York homes.

Equinor had obtained all the necessary permits for the project after a four-year federal environmental review and work had begun on laying foundations for the wind turbines on the ocean floor. 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum claimed that the permits for the project been rushed and ordered the work stopped.  The stoppage was costing Equinor $50 million a week as well as jeopardizing an additional 1,000 jobs. 

Weeks of intensive interactions between New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Equinor officials, and the White House finally resulted in a decision by the administration to lift the stop work order and allow the project to move forward. 

The collapse of the project would have created major problems for New York.  The state’s grid operators have been counting on the construction of several new offshore wind farms to provide large additional amounts of electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions.  New York has aggressive targets for using renewable energy.

Empire Wind is expected to have 816 megawatts of capacity.  Another offshore project in New York, Sunrise Wind, which is under construction 30 miles east of Montauk Point on Long Island, would have 924 megawatts of capacity.

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In Reversal, Trump Officials Will Allow Huge Offshore N.Y. Wind Farm to Proceed

Photo, posted August 9, 2022, courtesy of the Scottish Government via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Living in a warming world

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As global temperatures rise due to increased greenhouse gas emissions, communities around the world face more frequent and intense heatwaves, droughts, and extreme weather events. These growing climate pressures not only strain infrastructure and natural resources, but also play a critical role in shaping where people live. 

Recent projections from the First Street Foundation, which analyzes climate risks across the United States, highlight just how significant these shifts could be. In Sacramento County, California, rising flood risks, declining air quality, and soaring insurance costs could lead to a population decline of up to 28% by 2055. The risk assessment also projects that Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey could each lose more than 30% of their populations. And Fresno County, California, could see nearly half of its residents relocate due to mounting climate-related pressures.

Urban areas like cities, towns, and suburbs are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  Cities become significantly hotter due to the abundance of heat-absorbing surfaces and lack of green spaces, which intensifies heatwaves, worsens conditions for vulnerable populations, and may ultimately force some people to move.

Addressing these challenges requires a combination of climate solutions focused on both mitigation and adaptation. Solutions like expanding green infrastructure with urban parks and green roofs, and promoting sustainable development through energy-efficient buildings and transit-friendly design could all play a vital role in strengthening climate resilience.

As the planet warms, where we live – and how we live there – is rapidly being redefined.

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The 12th National Risk Assessment

Solar on farmland

Photo, posted May 15, 2013, courtesy of Germán Poo-Caamaño via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Natural solutions for disappearing islands

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Atoll islands are made from sediment produced by corals, clams, snails, and varieties of algae that secrete carbonate.  Under the right conditions, over time, fragments of coral skeletons, shells, and other sediments made by marine life are piled up by waves.  Eventually, islands are formed – some large and some small.  Atoll islands are home to a diversity of human cultures and are important refuges for a quarter of the world’s seabirds as well as numerous nesting sea turtles and tropical plants.

Rising sea levels – the rate of which has more than doubled over the past 30 years – are a mounting challenge for atoll islands.  And by the end of this century, sea level is projected to rise between 11 and 40 inches, depending on the world’s actions with regard to greenhouse gas emissions.

The ability of atoll islands to persist depends on the health of their ecosystems and the extent to which their natural processes have been disrupted by human activity.  To protect the most vulnerable islands, some researchers now propose using nature-based solutions – like restoring and protecting coral reefs and native forests.

Reclaiming seabird habitat can help reefs persist and restore the resilience of atoll islands.  Seabird guano washes off islands and into reefs, providing nutrients that boost coral growth and fish populations. 

Nature-based solutions cannot help the most urbanized atoll islands.  These islands have already irreversibly lost their natural adaptive capacity.  For those places, engineered approaches such as concrete seawalls are needed.

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How Natural Solutions Can Help Islands Survive Sea Level Rise

Photo, posted July 3, 2014, courtesy of Roderick Eime / MG Media via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Five amazing renewable energy projects

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Worldwide investment in renewable energy topped $2 trillion in 2024.  For Climate Solutions Week, we wanted to highlight some amazing projects around the world that showcase innovative technology, ambitious scale, and the commitment to a cleaner and sustainable future.

In Morocco, the Noor Solar Power Station is a huge concentrated solar power facility that generates power for more than a million Moroccans.  The facility stores some of the heat generated by the sun in molten salt so it can continue to produce power after sunset.

The Three Gorges Dam in China is the world’s largest power plant by installed capacity.  The 32 turbines generate enough electricity to power millions of homes. 

The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world.  The 600 turbines at the facility provide clean electricity for up to 450,000 homes.

The Yamakura Dam Floating Solar Project in Japan has more than 50,000 solar panels that provide electricity for about 5,000 households.  The plant is located atop the surface of the Yamakura Dam reservoir and is one of the largest floating solar installations in the world.

The Hellisheiði Power Station in Iceland is one of the world’s most technologically advanced geothermal energy plants.  It taps into Iceland’s volcanic geology and draws both high-pressure steam and hot water to provide both electricity and heat to thousands of local homes and businesses.  

These five projects are just a sampling of the renewable energy development going on all over the world.

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Powering the Future: Innovative Renewable Energy Projects Around the World

Photo, posted December 1, 2019, courtesy of Richard Allaway via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Feeding the future

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Climate change is already affecting the yields of major staple crops around the world, and researchers warn that the impacts will become more severe over time. Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events are disrupting growing seasons and reducing agricultural productivity.

Addressing these growing threats requires rethinking how we grow, distribute, and consume food.  To kick off Climate Solutions Week, we wanted to examine some solutions that could make food systems more resilient, sustainable, and adaptable to our rapidly changing environment.

One solution is Climate-Smart Agriculture, which blends traditional practices with modern techniques to boost productivity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Methods like zero tillage, intercropping, and crop diversification could improve soil health, conserve water, and help farms withstand climate extremes.

Expanding the production of highly nutritious and climate resilient food crops – like millet, sorghum, teff, quinoa, chickpeas, and tepary beans – will also have an important role to play.  At the same time, reducing food waste through better storage, labeling, and surplus food re-use could help meet demand without increasing production pressure.

Agriculture is the largest user of freshwater globally, and climate change is intensifying water shortages.  Farmers will need to transition to water-efficient farming practices, including drip irrigation, rainwater harvesting, and the reuse of treated wastewater. 

Together, these solutions could help revolutionize the global food system to both feed a growing population and help protect the planet. 

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Climate-smart agriculture

Water for Prosperity and Peace

A Food For The Future

Photo, posted October 16, 2011, courtesy of Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Building better blackberries

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The Human Genome Project is one of the greatest scientific feats in history.  It was launched in 1990 and completed in 2003.  The international group of researchers wanted to comprehensively study all of the DNA – the genome – from a select set of organisms, foremost of which being that of human beings.  The results accelerated the study of human biology and has led to improvements in the practice of medicine.

Every living thing – animal, plant, fungus, and various single-celled organisms – has a genome – a genetic blueprint.  A recent study by researchers at the University of Florida has done genome sequencing of blackberries with the hope of being able to achieve more efficient and targeted breeding.

Over the past 20 years, consumer demand for blackberries has increased leading to farmers growing more of the fruit in the United States.  The U.S. produces 37 million pounds of processed blackberries and almost 3 million pounds of fresh berries each year.

The Florida researchers made use of a large collection of DNA sequences to computationally piece together the entire genome of the blackberry variety in the study.  The genome study uncovered the secrets behind key traits that could lead to growing blackberry plants with no thorns and increasing the production of anthocyanin, which affects the color and health benefits of the fruit. 

For Florida, the southeastern United States and regions with similar climates, the genetic research holds the promise of accelerating the process to create blackberry varieties that are better suited to local growing conditions, enhancing both the yield and the quality of the increasingly popular fruit.

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Decoding blackberry DNA: UF study paves way for enhanced breeding strategies

Photo, posted September 18, 2016, courtesy of Theo Crazzolara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Saharan dust and solar power

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The world is a big place but even things that are far away can have serious local consequences.  The effects of distant Canadian wildfires on air quality in Florida is a good example.

Europe is increasingly becoming reliant on solar energy to meet its targets for climate change mitigation and energy security.   According to new research by four Hungarian universities, mineral dust carried on the wind from the Sahara Desert is not only reducing electricity generation from solar power across Europe but it is also making it harder to predict what gets generated.

The Sahara releases billions of tons of fine dust into the atmosphere each year.  Tens of millions of tons reach European skies where the tiny particles scatter and absorb sunlight, reduce the amount of light reaching the surface, and even promote cloud formation.   All of these things reduce the output of photovoltaic systems.

In addition, conventional weather forecasting tools don’t consider the effects of Saharan dust events, so that scheduling of solar power for the energy system becomes less reliable.  Incorporating these events into new forecast models will be essential.

Apart from the atmospheric effects of the dust, there are also long-term impacts due to dust contaminating and eroding the physical infrastructure of solar panels thereby further reducing their efficiency and increasing maintenance costs.

Over time, south-to-north transport of Saharan dust is likely to become more pronounced due to a steeper thermal gradient.  Currently, the quantities of atmospheric dust, the dynamics of its transport, and the physical properties of the dust itself are not very well understood.  Understanding these things will be crucial for Europe’s energy future.

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The shadow of the wind: photovoltaic power generation under Europe’s dusty skies

Photo, posted March 11, 2023, courtesy of Mark Wordy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A biostimulant for wheat

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Feeding a global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by mid-century is a massive challenge.  Wheat provides a fifth of the calories in the global human diet and is a significant source of protein, minerals, vitamins, and fiber.  Finding ways to increase the yield of wheat crops has great value.  However, wheat has complex genetics, which makes it difficult to improve yields by traditional breeding methods or even by genetic engineering.

Researchers at Oxford University and the nearby Rosalind Franklin Institute have developed a biostimulant that can deliver increased wheat yields of up to 12%.  It is applied as a spray and a four-year study in Argentina and Mexico demonstrated that it delivers major yield improvements irrespective of weather conditions.

The biostimulant is based on trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P), which is a natural molecule that regulates the plant equivalent of blood sugar.  T6P prompts plants to produce more starch and increases the rate of photosynthesis.

Naturally occurring T6P cannot be applied topically because it cannot cross cell membranes.  The researchers developed a membrane-permeable precursor of T6P that releases T6P into a plant in the presence of sunlight.

The biostimulant can be manufactured on an industrial scale and would be inexpensive to use. 

The researchers have created SugaROx, a spinout company whose mission is “to increase the productivity, resilience, sustainability, and profitability of crop production” using active ingredients inspired by powerful natural plant molecules.

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New biostimulant treatment significantly boosts wheat yields, field studies confirm

Photo, posted July 28, 2014, courtesy of Brad Higham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Airplanes and climate change

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The aviation industry is a powerful force in the global economy.  In fact, according to some estimates, the industry transports the equivalent of nearly half the world’s population every year.  But the world’s airports were largely designed for an older era – a cooler one.

As air warms, it becomes less dense, which makes it harder for airplanes to generate lift, which is the force that enables them to fly.

According to a new study by scientists from the University of Reading in the U.K., rising temperatures due to climate change may force aircraft at some airports to reduce passenger numbers in the coming decades.

The research team examined how warmer air affects aircraft performance during takeoff at 30 sites across Europe.  The study, which was recently published in the journal Aerospace, focused on the Airbus A320, which is a common aircraft used for short and medium-distance flights across Europe.

By the 2060s, the research team found that some airports with shorter runways may need to reduce their maximum take-off weight by the equivalent of approximately 10 passengers per flight during summer months.

Of the sites included in the study, Chios in Greece, Pantelleria and Rome Ciampino in Italy, and San Sebastian in Spain will be the four most affected popular tourist destinations.

Climate change is also making air travel increasingly turbulent, and the aviation industry itself remains a growing contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Taking meaningful action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, including those from the aviation industry, is one of the most crucial ways to mitigate global climate change.

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Holiday flights could carry fewer passengers as world warms

Photo, posted September 29, 2017, courtesy of Hugh Llewelyn via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A giant plane for giant wind turbines

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Wind turbines have been getting bigger all the time.  Larger turbines have real advantages.  They can operate at lower speeds so they can be deployed in more places.  They capture more wind, so they make more power.  Large wind turbines can have blades more than 200 feet long and even larger ones are on the way.  An offshore wind farm in China has turbines with 400-foot blades.

Giant wind turbines face a thorny problem:  getting the blades to where they are to be installed.  The enormous blades can’t be easily shipped across aging roads and bridges.   Tunnels are too narrow, bridges are too low, and roads can be too tight to allow turns when transporting these massive turbine parts.  Some developers have actually had to build special roads for wind projects.

For nearly a decade, a Boulder Colorado company called Radia has been working on what would be the world’s largest plane.  The WindRunner aircraft would have a dozen times the cargo volume of a Boeing 747.  The WindRunner will be 356 feet long and 79 feet tall.  While its primary purpose would be transporting wind turbine blades, the plane could also be used to aid the military or businesses that are thinking really big.  Product developers often don’t even try to invent really big things because there is no way to transport them.  Radia expects the WindRunner to be rolled out before the end of the decade.

The wind industry is currently facing strong opposition from the Trump administration, but wind energy is not going away and bigger and better wind turbines will ultimately be built and will have to be transported.

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Building the World’s Biggest Plane to Help Catch the Wind

Photo, October 10, 2013, courtesy of Allan Der via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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