Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

The path to achieving net-zero liquid fuel
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-path-net- ... -fuel.html
by Monash University

Researchers from Monash University and Hokkaido University have developed a method that converts carbon dioxide into a diesel-range fuel and has the potential to produce a net-zero liquid fuel alternative to power cars more sustainably.

When carbon dioxide (CO2) is added to the manufacturing process of fuel production, it has the capability to produce fuels that reduce or reverse the net CO2 emissions. When the hydrogen required for this process is supplied via solar powered water electrolysis, the entire process becomes completely renewable. The end result is a net-zero carbon emitting fuel product.

The transition to 100 percent renewable energy resources is essential to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels over the last century. The research, which was recently published in the Journal of Energy Chemistry, offers a diesel-range fuel alternative which has the capability to be applied anywhere in the world.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

First global estimate of the importance of pollinators for seed production in plants
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-global-im ... ction.html
by Stellenbosch University South Africa

About 175,000 plant species—half of all flowering plants—mostly or completely rely on animal pollinators to make seeds and so to reproduce. Declines in pollinators could therefore cause major disruptions in natural ecosystems, including loss of biodiversity.

This is the finding from a paper, "Widespread vulnerability of plant seed production to pollinator declines," published in the journal Science Advances on 13 October 2021.

Dr. James Rodger, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stellenbosch University (SU) and lead author, says this is the first study to provide a global estimate of the importance of pollinators for plants in natural ecosystems.

The study, involving 21 scientists affiliated with 23 institutions from five continents, was led by Dr. James Rodger and Prof Allan Ellis from Stellenbosch University (SU). It is a product of the Synthesis Centre for Biodiversity Sciences (sDiv) in the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research.

Prof Tiffany Knight from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and a senior co-author, says recent global assessments of pollination have highlighted a knowledge gap in our understanding of how dependent plants are on animal pollinators: "Our synthetic research addresses this gap, and enables us to link trends in pollinator biodiversity and abundance to consequences for plants at a global level," she says,.

[caltrek]

Biden Administration Gives Offshore Wind Farms a Big Boost
by Justine Calma
October 13, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/13/227 ... coastlines

Introduction:

(The Verge) Offshore wind farms could be coming to nearly every coastline along the continental US. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland today announced plans to auction off leases to developers for up to seven new areas by 2025. That includes waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine, Central Atlantic, New York Bight (between Long Island and New Jersey), and off the coasts of Oregon, California, and the Carolinas.

It’s a big scaling up of offshore wind in the US, which lags far behind Europe when it comes to deployment. The US’ first commercial-scale offshore wind farm just got federal approval in May. Two existing, smaller operations in US waters have a combined capacity of just 42 megawatts. The Biden administration set a goal of pushing capacity up to 30,000 MW by 2030. Europe, home to a majority of the world’s offshore wind, already had nearly that much installed in 2020.

The US’ first offshore wind projects are all along the East Coast. Expanding to other shores will come with new technical challenges. On the Pacific coast, waters get much deeper, much closer to shore compared to the US’ Atlantic coastline. That makes it more difficult to affix turbines to the seafloor. The White House announced in May that it would open up two areas off the California coast to commercial-scale wind farms and indicated that it might turn to new technology for floating wind farms.

Turbines in the Gulf of Mexico will have to contend with hurricanes and soft soils, recent studies from the National Renewable Energy Lab found. Still, shallow water and smaller waves make the Gulf ripe for wind development. New offshore wind industry here could potentially also benefit from existing infrastructure and know-how from the region’s history of offshore oil and gas drilling. The very first wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island was built with the help of ships from Louisiana.

“We are working to facilitate a pipeline of projects that will establish confidence for the offshore wind industry,” said Amanda Lefton, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in a statement today. It could still take years to get offshore turbines up and running.

[Yuli Ban]

France's Le Pen says she will take down wind turbines if she is elected

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said on Thursday she would end all subsidies for renewable energy and take down France's wind turbines if she is elected next year.

Le Pen, who will be the candidate of the Rassemblement National party in the April vote, made it to the second round of the 2017 election, and is expected to do so again, although some recent polls have shown that right-wing talk-show star Eric Zemmour could best her if he decides to run. read more

"Wind and solar, these energies are not renewable, they are intermittent. If I am elected, I will put a stop to all construction of new wind parks and I will launch a big project to dismantle them," she said on RTL radio.

Deranged

[caltrek]

The scope of the article cited below is very wide. Energy used in transportation is just one aspect. Also discussed in the article itself is the food industry, cement production, steel production, replacement of wood by other synthesized materials, eliminating plastics and leather from fashion, and substitutes for oil through fermentation processes.

A Road Map for Climate Investors
by Arvind Gupta
October 15, 2021

https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/15/a-roa ... investors/

Extract:

(TechCrunch) We will need more than double today’s clean energy output to service growing demand. But until we can store this energy and use it in cars, boats, airplanes and more, clean energy production will not eliminate the need for oil and coal. Energy storage is the main bottleneck for a global electric economy. We need bigger, safer and cleaner batteries that can be used everywhere from the grid to our cars to our homes, and keep the lights on when we need them most.

You and I won’t be buying these batteries, but they will power everything we do buy. From cars to the cargo ships that deliver them to the airplanes that carry us, they will all eventually be electric. Boeing just ordered 100 electric planes from Heart Aerospace, in which it also invested. The world’s first electric cargo ship, the Yara Birkeland, built by Marin Teknikk, is scheduled to have its maiden voyage soon.

…Unfortunately, lithium-based battery technology still only has one-tenth the maximum energy density of gasoline (which is around 50 megajoules per kilogram). It isn’t enough. The closest we can get with lithium-ion technology is the lithium-air battery, which has a theoretical energy density of 40 megajoules per kilogram, but new electrolytes need to be invented for it to work. Like Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier to usher in the supersonic era, we need to break through this density barrier to power our green future.

Recent studies have demonstrated that melanin, our skin pigment, has also shown promise as a potent cathode that can make rechargeable sodium batteries a possibility. This would enable large-scale “salt” batteries that can be used to create a safe and clean grid storage solution. Researchers have also used viruses to create nanolayers of different elements to make higher-performance cathodes. Other lines of research have shown that batteries driven by enzymatic catalysts can potentially use sugar water to slowly charge your car or house with bio-electricity. None of the solutions above are within a decade to market; all are in the research stage.

[weatheriscool]

New study finds black spruce trees struggling to regenerate amid more frequent arctic fires
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-black-spr ... erate.html
by Woodwell Climate Research Center

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), finds that black spruce trees—a key species on the boreal landscape for millennia—are losing their resilience and capacity to regenerate in the face of warming temperatures and increasingly frequent Arctic wildfires. A continuation of this trend could result in a landscape-wide ecological shift that would have a complex and rippling impact on the region, including an acceleration in permafrost thaw, and a loss of valuable biodiversity.

In boreal North America, the thick, spongy soils on which black spruce grows are made of peat moss and lichens that retain moisture very well but when they do dry out are highly flammable. Black spruce rely on fires for regeneration—their cones open up in the heat and drop seeds onto the charred organic soil—but this latest study indicates that more severe fires that burn deeper into these peat soils are leading to a short-circuit of the regeneration process.

In synthesizing data from more than 1500 fire-disturbed sites, researchers found that black spruce's ability to regenerate after fire dropped at 38% of sites and failed completely 18% of the time—numbers never before seen in a species evolved to thrive after fire. Significant shifts in wildfire regimes are pushing black spruce forests to a tipping point, beyond which the iconic species may lose its place as the dominant tree species in boreal North America.

[weatheriscool]

Seagrass restoration study shows rapid recovery of ecosystem functions
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-seagrass- ... tions.html
by University of California - Santa Cruz

As the dominant seagrass species on the U.S. West Coast, eelgrass supports a wide range of ecosystem services and functions, making its preservation and restoration a top priority for the region. Eelgrass restoration has a spotty record of success, however, and studies of restoration sites have rarely assessed the full range of ecosystem functions.

In a new study published October 6 in Ecological Applications, researchers demonstrated that eelgrass restoration efforts can lead to rapid expansion of restored plots and recovery of ecosystem functions.

The study involved small-scale experimental seagrass restoration efforts in Elkhorn Slough on the Central Coast of California. Researchers transplanted 2,340 shoots of eelgrass from healthy meadows into 117 small plots, and evaluated their success relative to areas without vegetation and natural eelgrass meadows.

"Within a few years, most of the ecosystem functions were near or at the level seen in natural eelgrass meadows, suggesting that these habitats can recover pretty quickly if the conditions are right," said first author Kathryn Beheshti, who earned her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz in 2021 and is currently a California Sea Grant Fellow at the Ocean Protection Council's Climate Change Program.

The restored plots expanded dramatically, resulting in eelgrass beds covering an area 85 times larger than the initial plots. The restored beds began to resemble the natural meadows in structural features such as canopy height and shoot density, in the richness and abundance of species using the restored habitat, and in water quality. The study assessed a suite of seven ecosystem functions, and the researchers also developed a multifunctionality index to assess the overall functional performance of the restored beds.

"We found that overall the restored plots are performing higher than unvegetated plots and just slightly below the natural meadows," Beheshti said.

[caltrek]

Lawyer Who Sued Chevron is Ordered to Prison — Even After Amnesty International Sounded Alarm
October 27, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/human-rights/

Introduction:

(Democracy Now! via Alternet) The environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger joins us just before he is ordered to report to jail today, after a years-long legal battle with the oil company Chevron and 813 days of house arrest. In 2011, Donziger won an $18 billion settlement against Chevron on behalf of 30,000 Indigenous people in Ecuador for dumping 16 billion gallons of oil into their ancestral land in the Amazon. Since the landmark case, Donziger has faced a series of legal attacks from Chevron and a New York federal judge, who has employed a private law firm linked to the oil company to prosecute him. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of court, and his request for bail pending his appeal was denied. Amnesty International and United Nations human rights advocates, along with several U.S. lawmakers, are calling for Donziger's immediate release. "Chevron and these two judges, really allies of the fossil fuel industry, are trying to use me as a weapon to intimidate activists and lawyers who do this work," says Donziger. "I need to be prosecuted by a neutral prosecutor, not by Chevron."

[Ken_J]

Energy crisis is getting talked about.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/07/business ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

Using ocean plastic waste to power ocean cleanup ships
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-oce ... ships.html
by Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore

A team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harvard University believes that the plastic amassing in floating islands in the oceans could be used to power the ships that are sent to clean them up. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how ocean plastics could be converted to ship fuel.

Prior research has shown that millions of tons of plastics enter the ocean each year—some of it is ground into fragments and disperses, and some of it winds up in colossal garbage patches floating in remote parts of the ocean. Because of the danger that such plastics present to ocean life, some environmentalists have begun cleanup operations. Such operations typically involve sending a ship to a garbage patch, collecting as much as the ship will hold and then bringing it back to port for processing. In this new effort, the researchers suggest it would be far more efficient and greener to turn the plastic into fuel for both a processing machine and for uninterrupted operation of the ships.

The researchers note that the plastic in a garbage dump could be converted to a type of oil via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). In this process, the plastic is heated to 300–550 degrees Celsius at pressures 250 to 300 times that of sea-level conditions. The researchers have calculated that a ship carrying an HTL converter would be capable of producing enough oil to run the HTL converter and the ship's engine. Under their scenario, plastic collection booms would be permanently stationed at multiple sites around a large garbage patch, able to load the plastic it collects onto ships.

The researchers acknowledge that burning the oil produced would release carbon into the atmosphere, but note that the amount emitted would still be less than that emitted by a ship burning conventional oil making trips back and forth to ports. They also note that HTL does produce a small amount of solid waste, which would have to be taken back to port, likely every few months—excess fuel produced by the HTL could be used for these trips.

[wjfox]

The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.

By Al Shaw and Lylla Younes,
November 2, 2021

It’s not a secret that industrial facilities emit hazardous air pollution.

A new ProPublica analysis shows for the first time just how much toxic air pollution they emit — and how much the chemicals they unleash could be elevating cancer risk in their communities.

ProPublica’s analysis of five years of modeled EPA data identified more than 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country and found that an estimated 250,000 people living in them may be exposed to levels of excess cancer risk that the EPA deems unacceptable.

The agency has long collected the information on which our analysis is based. Thousands of facilities nationwide that are considered large sources of toxic air pollution submit a report to the government each year on their chemical emissions.

But the agency has never released this data in a way that allows the public to understand the risks of breathing the air where they live. Using the reports submitted between 2014 and 2018, we calculated the estimated excess cancer risk from industrial sources across the entire country and mapped it all.

https://projects.propublica.org/toxmap/

[weatheriscool]

Mountaintop removal worse for endangered species than initially thought

by Defenders of Wildlife
https://phys.org/news/2021-11-mountaint ... ought.html

A new study published today by journal PLOS ONE has revealed that mountaintop removal mining poses a more serious and widespread threat to endangered species and people than was previously understood. The researchers from Defenders of Wildlife's Center for Conservation Innovation (CCI) and conservation technology nonprofit SkyTruth, combine water-quality data with satellite imagery of mountaintop removal mining activity to estimate the full extent of water-quality degradation attributable to the practice at the landscape level.

"This research really emphasizes the interconnectedness of ecosystems and how distant human activity can have ripple effects that aren't immediately apparent," said CCI's Senior Conservation Data Scientist Mike Evans. "Being able to assess impacts at a landscape scale opens a completely new door for conservation."

Mountaintop removal is a coal-mining method that clearcuts forests and then uses explosives to remove top soil and bedrock, which is often dumped in nearby valleys. The method's negative impacts on water quality is well known, but this research is now revealing the extent of the damage.

The research found that chronic and acute toxicity thresholds for chemicals like aluminum, copper, lead and manganese as well as acidity levels in streams were exceeded thousands of times—including in areas of critical habitat—far removed from where the mines actually are. Previously, it was thought impacts were contained to the immediate area around mines.

[caltrek]

Consumption in the G20 Nations Causes Particulate Air Pollution Resulting in Two Million Premature Deaths Annually
by Keisuke Nansai, Susumu Tohno, Satoru Chatani, Keiichiro Kanemoto, Shigemi Kagawa, Yasushi Kondo, Wataru Takayanagi & Manfred Lenzen
November 2, 2021

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26348-y

Abstract:

(Nature)Worldwide exposure to ambient PM2.5 causes over 4 million premature deaths annually. As most of these deaths are in developing countries, without internationally coordinated efforts this polarized situation will continue. As yet, however, no studies have quantified nation-to-nation consumer responsibility for global mortality due to both primary and secondary PM2.5 particles. Here we quantify the global footprint of PM2.5-driven premature deaths for the 19 G20 nations in a position to lead such efforts. G20 consumption in 2010 was responsible for 1.983 [95% Confidence Interval: 1.685–2.285] million premature deaths, at an average age of 67, including 78.6 [71.5–84.8] thousand infant deaths, implying that the G20 lifetime consumption of about 28 [24–33] people claims one life. Our results indicate that G20 nations should take responsibility for their footprint rather than focusing solely on transboundary air pollution, as this would expand opportunities for reducing PM2.5-driven premature mortality. Given the infant mortality footprint identified, it would moreover contribute to ensuring infant lives are not unfairly left behind in countries like South Africa, which have a weak relationship with G20 nations.

Introduction
To achieve planetary health1, a world that is healthy for both the global biosphere and human civilization, the critical challenge is to mitigate the human health hazards, as well as suppress the environmental impacts created by socioeconomic activities, reining in the latter to within the Earth’s environmental tolerance. Among the many environmental problems affecting human health, the greatest threat is that posed by the inhalation of particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less, abbreviated to PM2.52. According to the World Health Organization (WHO)3, in 2016 respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer caused by exposure to ambient PM2.5 were responsible for approximately 4.2 million premature deaths, i.e., deaths occurring before the average age of death in thepopulation concerned. The majority of these deaths were in countries with low and middle incomes3, while 91% of the global population lives in areas where air quality is below WHO guidelines4. The loss to the global workforce due to premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 was equivalent to 225 billion US dollars in 20135. While the reduction in air pollution due to the COVID-19 pandemic6 has mitigated human health impacts somewhat, it is neither sufficient nor lasting7,8,9.

References
1.
Whitmee, S. et al. Safeguarding human health in the anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health. Lancet 386, 1973–2028 (2015).
PubMed Article PubMed Central Google Scholar
2.
Health Effects Institute. State of Global Air 2018. Special Report. (Health Effects Institute, Boston, MA, 2018).
3.
WHO. Ambient (outdoor) air pollution, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-shee ... and-health (2018).Return to ref 3 in article
4.
WHO. Evolution of WHO air quality guidelines: past, present and future. (Copenhagen, 2017).
5.
World Bank and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Cost of Air Pollution: Strengthening the Economic Case for Action. (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016).
6.
Lenzen, M. et al. Global socio-economic losses and environmental gains from the Coronavirus pandemic. PLoS One 15, e0235654. (2020).
7.
He, G. J., Pan, Y. H. & Tanaka, T. The short-term impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air pollution in China. Nat. Sustain. 3, 1005–1011 (2020).
8.
Silver, B., He, X. Y., Arnold, S. R. & Spracklen, D. V. The impact of COVID-19 control measures on air quality in China. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 084021 (2020).
9.
Wang, P. F., Chen, K. Y., Zhu, S. Q., Wang, P. & Zhang, H. L. Severe air pollution events not avoided by reduced anthropogenic activities during COVID-19 outbreak. Resour. Conserv. Recy. 158, 104814 (2020).

[caltrek]

Mutant Microbe Produces Carbon-Neutral Biofuel
by Talia Ogliore-Wustl
November 4, 2021

https://www.futurity.org/microbes-biofu ... er-265166/

Introduction

(Futurity) Scientists have modified a microbe so it can produce a biofuel using only three renewable and naturally abundant source ingredients: carbon dioxide, solar panel-generated electricity, and light.

The microbe, called Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1 (TIE-1), produced a biofuel, n-butanol, that is an authentically carbon-neutral fuel alternative that can be used in blends with diesel or gasoline.

“Microorganisms have evolved a bewildering array of techniques to obtain nutrients from their surrounding environments,” says Arpita Bose, associate professor of biology at Washington University and lead author of the paper in Communications Biology.

“Perhaps one of the most fascinating of these feeding techniques uses microbial electrosynthesis (MES). Here we have harnessed the power of microbes to convert carbon dioxide into value-added multi-carbon compounds in a usable biofuel.”

“The fuel we made, n-butanol, has a high energy content and low tendency to vaporize or dissolve in water without combustion,” says first author Wei Bai, a PhD graduate of McKelvey Engineering’s energy, environmental, and chemical engineering department who worked as a research assistant in the Bose lab from 2015-2020. “This is especially true when compared with ethanol, which is a commonly used biofuel.”

[Yuli Ban]

The proportion of electricity the United States gets from solar and wind nearly quadrupled between 2011 and 2020. While geothermal generation remained relatively flat, the three technologies combined for an annual increase of nearly 15 percent over that stretch.

Those findings come from a report released Tuesday by the nonprofit Environment America Research and Policy Center and the nonpartisan research organization Frontier Group. The analysis also found that if the current growth rate continues, wind, solar and geothermal would meet current electricity demand levels by 2035 — which is when President Biden aims to have an entirely fossil-fuel-free grid.

“The pace of progress is continuing to pick up,” said Emma Searson, an author of the new report. “That’s exactly what we need to see in years to come.”

[raklian]

The proportion of electricity the United States gets from solar and wind nearly quadrupled between 2011 and 2020. While geothermal generation remained relatively flat, the three technologies combined for an annual increase of nearly 15 percent over that stretch.

Those findings come from a report released Tuesday by the nonprofit Environment America Research and Policy Center and the nonpartisan research organization Frontier Group. The analysis also found that if the current growth rate continues, wind, solar and geothermal would meet current electricity demand levels by 2035 — which is when President Biden aims to have an entirely fossil-fuel-free grid.

“The pace of progress is continuing to pick up,” said Emma Searson, an author of the new report. “That’s exactly what we need to see in years to come.”

"Current growth rate" still assumes linear growth. Given recent trends, the more likely scenario will be exponential growth which means it's going to grow at least to the second power of a quadruple. 2035 is still a very conservative estimate, I'll bet.

[wjfox]

Florida has rejected a plan to drill for oil in the Everglades

November 6, 2021 at 7:49 AM EDT

State environmental regulators ruled the proposed well could impact water supplies and endangered species, such as the Florida panther.

The state has denied a request to dig exploratory oil wells near the Everglades.

A ruling by the state Department of Environmental Protection on Friday rejected the application by Trend Exploration of North Fort Myers. The letter states drilling the wells could adversely impact water supplies and wildlife in the area, which includes habitat for the endangered Florida panther.

Read more: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/environme ... -the-state



Flickr.Com/Big Cypress National Preserve

[erowind]

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[weatheriscool]

Newly developed compound may enable sustainable, cost-effective, large-scale energy storage
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-new ... ctive.html
by Beijing Institute of Technology Press Co., Ltd

To produce a cost-effective redox flow battery, researchers based at the South China University of Technology have synthesized a molecular compound that serves as a low-cost electrolyte, enabling a stable flow battery that retains 99.98% capacity per cycle. They published their approach on August 14 in the Energy Material Advances.

Comprising two tanks of opposing liquid electrolytes, the battery pumps the positive and negative liquids along a membrane separator sandwiched between electrodes, facilitating ion exchanges to produce energy. Significant work has been dedicated to developing the negative electrolyte liquid, while the positive electrolyte liquid has received less attention, according to corresponding author Zhenxing Liang, professor in the Key Laboratory of Fuel Cell Technology of Guangdong Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology.

"Aqueous redox flow batteries can realize the stable electrical output for using unsteady solar and wind energy, and they have been recognized as a promising large-scale energy storage technology," Liang said. "Electroactive organic merit of element abundance, low cost and flexible molecular control over the electrochemical features for both positive and negative electrolytes are regarded as key to developing next-generation redox flow batteries."

Liang and his team focused on TEMPO, a chemical compound with easily reversed oxidation states and high potential for energy, a desired quality in positive electrolytes.