As part of a National Science Foundation grant program to examine cutting edge ways to make nature work for us, a team of scientists at Iowa State University have been awarded $2 million to unravel how some plants and algae can make hydrocarbons and discover if the genes that govern that process might be isolated.
“These plants are capturing solar energy and creating something that’s chemically identical to petroleum,” said Jackie Shanks, Iowa State’s Manley R. Hoppe Professor of Chemical Engineering, in a statement.
Our race to find alternative fuels is critical not only because gasoline-powered vehicles emit lots of CO2–it’s also important because we’re running out of the sticky stuff. But what if the Earth could produce fossil fuels without the fossils?
As a pollutant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAH’s as we call them in the business), are of concern because they have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic (not good things if you were wondering). PAHs are created as a byproduct of the burning of coal, oil, and fossil fuels. Often they are of concern in urban areas where there is a higher carbon footprint, and it forms that nice cloud of yellow smoke you see floating over some of your major cities.
Now, new research out of Columbia University is showing that exposure to PAHs, can reduce neonate’s intelligence. The study performed in New York city where PAHs are in no short demand, showed IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower, respectively than those of less exposed children.
Russia’s Security Council has authorized the creation of an Arctic special forces military to be deployed by the year 2020 to protect their interests in the Far North as new sources of natural resources become more available due to the decrease in ice cover.
Those cute little creatures shown in the video are represent what may be the future of carbon sequestration.
CARS is the acronym for Carbon Algae Recycling System, it’s a system under development in Canada to clean up tailing ponds and greenhouse gas emissions left by the Alberta Tar Sands project.
As the video shows, exhaust CO2 is pumped into algae-rich tailing ponds where it’s digested. The plumped-out algae, full of hydrocarbons and heavy metals, are harvested and turned into biofuels.
San Franciscans utter a lot about our lovely municipal transit system otherwise known as MUNI but now they have even more reason to spout off about it. Normally when we hear MUNI coming out of someone’s mouth it usually follows on the heels of “Damn.” Now we can change that utterance to “Green Muni”. Sure, the 71 bus might not come on time but when it does arrive at [...]
