NASA is cultivating renewable energy?

You may wonder what's the relationship between NASA and renewable energy.
In fact, according to Jonathan Trent, the lead scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, " we are not passengers on spaceship Earth, we are the crew." Imagine we are astronauts going into space towards Mars, where will take at least 3 years to reach. And we have to bring life necessities and manage to use resources in a more sustainable way to accomplish missions and, most of all, survive. Living in a resources-limited Earth is much the same scenario as in a spaceship, which is what inspired NASA's "Sustainable Energy for Spaceship Earth" project.  Among this project, producing biofuels from algae has become main interest. Why? Economics. Last blog, I mentioned some second-generation biomass like Switchgrass which can yield 500 GJ/ha/yr (≒240 Gcal/acre-yr). While some microalgae can produce over 5000 Gcal/acre-yr, that is, 2,000 gallons of oil per acre per year. You can easily make a comparison of microalgae with other biomass from the following figure.

Source: TEDxSanJoseCA -Jonathan Trent, PhD - Can We Cultivate Energy?

Although two pilot land-based methods, open ponds and closed bioreactors, have been used to grow freshwater algae, there are some inevitable freshwater and land resources problems. Growing algae in open ponds needs sustainable water supply to prevent evaporation influencing steady growth conditions. While in closed bioreactors, evaporation won't be a disturbance, yet the computer-monitored systems are extremely expensive.

Bioreactors. Source: NASA 

To overcome these obstacles, NASA scientists have developed an ingenious system, ' Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA)'. OMEGA is designed to commercially produce  carbon-neutral biofuel, yet it can at the same time clean waste water. In addition, cultivating algae in offshore doesn't compete with agriculture for land, freshwater or fertilizers. How does it achieve lots of advantages? Are there any potential effects on environments?

source: NASA

The idea is straightforward, nonetheless, state of the art techniques are needed. In OMEGA,  freshwater  algae are grown in semi-permeable membranes(plastic bags), filled with sewage providing growth nutrients. The algae can clean up the waste water while growing, meanwhile, clean water can pass  naturally into ocean via membranes (osmosis). The 'forward-osmosis membranes' can retain the algae and nutrients while release freshwater. In addition, algae absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen after photosynthesis. Hence, biofuels produced from the algae are carbon-neutral, i.e. , the same amount of CO2 is fixed by the algae and burned using biofuels , no additional CO2 is released. These membranes also provide some marine habitats for aquaculture.

Now you may think what if this system is leaked and the algae is released to the ocean? According to Trent, OMEGA won't cause any environmental problems. The freshwater algae will either become a  part of food chains or die in the ocean.

Compared to the other land-based biomass, which consuming water and fertilizers and requiring land usage, OMEGA seems to be quite a solution to the resources depleting world.

References:
NASA OMEGA

TEDxSanJoseCA - Jonathan Trent, PhD- Can We Cultivate Energy?

Second generation bioenergy

Rapeseed and Sorghum/Photo taken in Quemoy, Taiwan

"A new generation of biofuels could meet almost half of Britain’s renewable transport needs, but without them the UK will miss its 2020 target, a new Government-commissioned report warns." [1]

What's 'a new generation of biofuels' about?

We've heard  news about first-generation bioenergy - bioethanol, produced mainly from food-based crops, like sugarcane and corn. And the food v.s. fuel competition has driven concerns in terms of food security. Whether subsided bioenergy has influence on food price and caused political unrest around developing countries is debatable [2]. 

While second-generation bioenergy, might be less controversial, converted from inedible part of plants- leaves, stalks, stems etc. and can avoid turning food into fuel. There are several processing platforms for producing different biofuels, among these routes, lignocellulosic biomass for ethanol has some promising perspectives [3].  There are four types of lignocellulosic biomass, including  agricultural residues, dedicated energy crops, wood residues, and municipal paper waste [4]. S. Yuan et al.[3] used net energy balance (NEB) as an indicator to examine whether a biofuels platform is environmentally and economically sustainable. A high positive NEB means higher energy output than input for biomass production and processing. For instance, ethanol from some popular lignocellulosic feedstocks in Europe, Switchgrass, and Miscanthus can yield 150-500 GJ/ha/yr and 250-550 GJ/ha/yr respectively. Compared with some first-generation biofuels platforms, NEB of maize and sugarcane is 10-80 GJ/ha/yr and 55-80 GJ/ha/yr respectively. They also proposed that if the hurdle of efficient convention into ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass can be overcome, then a NEB of  up to 600 GJ/ha/yr will be a plausible expectation [3]. In addition to higher energy gain and lower production costs,  poplar and switchgrass have a negative carbon balance, which means more carbon dioxide is fixed by the plants than emitted from production and usage of bioenergy [3]. If more carbon is sequenced by biomass crops, then bioenergy can be a feasible solution and mitigation to global warming.      

References

1.Greenwise

2.Bioenergy: Fuelling the food crisis?

3.S. Yuan et al., Plants to power: bioenergy to fuel the future, 2008, Trends in Plant Science.

4.Wikipedia: Lignocellulosic biomass

Carbon Capture and Storage: false hope or real mitigation?

I've posted a brief introduction of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), now let's have a follow-up discussion about if CCS is a double-edged sword.

First, from Greenpeace's points of view[1],
'The technology (CCS) is highly speculate, risky and unlikely to be technically feasible in the next twenty years.'
The reason being,

1. CCS cannot deliver in time to avoid dangerous climate change.The earliest commercial CCS equipped power plant is not expected before 2030, whilst climate scientists suggest that we should cut global greenhouse gas emission by at least 50% by 2050, compared to 1990 level to avoid climate crisis.
2.  CCS waste energy. Capturing and storing carbon are pricey and need lots of energy. In addition, power plants with capture technology will need more freshwater than those without. 
3. Storing carbon underground is risky. There is always a risk of leakage after injecting carbon into geological sites. Even as low as 1% of continuous leakage will undermine the mitigation efforts. Not to mention CO2 leakage can have a potential threat to ecology systems and  health.
4. Funding CCS is at expense of  real solutions like renewable energy. Moreover, according to Greenpeace's Energy [R]evolution [2], using renewable energy combined with energy efficiency is sufficient to cut global emission by almost 50% and at the same time deliver half the world's energy need by 2050.

On the other hand, R. Stuart Haszeldine, a professor of University of Edinburgh, has published a review article[3] and proposed urgent action is required to overcome hurdles of CCS developments, providing that CCS plays a role in mitigating climate change. Here are some of his viewpoints which are not necessary against Greenpeace's.  

1.  CCS pilots and experiments are already operating, and can be increased to cost-effective commercial size by 2020. This depends on not only a pricing carbon market but also additional policy levers to provide revenue to realize large investments and enforce developments .
2. Technical challenges from carbon capture to transport and storage can be progressively  resolved, but the road to rapid commercial deployment is less certain. For example, all three kinds of carbon capture technologies(i.e., precombustion, postcombustion and oxyfuel combustion) have different pros and cons. It will be much slower to replicate each other with competitions between three types rather than only one type of capture is dominant.   
3. CCS can be responsive on a renewable electricity grid. For instance, at extreme period of no wind, which is not rare, then backup fossil fuel generation will be needed.

What do you think?

Actually, I worked in an environmental consultant company in Taiwan before my current studies at UCL climate change program, and last year I had participated in organization of a CCS seminar and press conference which announced the commencement of Taiwan CCS projects. In other words, I used to have some positive recognition of CCS. Nonetheless, after I read the reports above-mentioned, I start to think about whether CCS is a real mitigation for tackling climate change. Moreover, simply look at the following quotation from Haszeldine's report [3],

'Several commercial developments(CCS) seen likely to operate before 2015 in the U.S; Alberta, Canada; Queensland, Australia; U.K., and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.'

I just sensed some unusual relationship between these nations CCS developments and their fossil fuel 

industrial giants...

References

1.False hope: Why carbon capture and storage won’t save the climate, 2007, Greenpeace International.http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/reports/false-hope-why-carbon-capture/

2.The Energy [R]evolution, 2012, Greenpeace International, Greenpeace International and European Renewable Energy Council. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/Campaign-reports/Climate-Reports/Energy-Revolution-2012/

3. Carbon Capture and Storage: how green can black be, 2009, R.Stuart Haszeldine, Science, vol 325.

Carbon Capture and Storage: a brief intro.

Source: awards.earthjournalism.org

From the International Energy Agency (IEA) to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have recognized  Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration (CCS) as a feasible technology to reduce CO2 emission from coal or gas fired power planets.  The idea is straightforward, first, CO2 emission can be captured at a specific installation and pressurized to liquid, then liquified CO2 can be transported to a storage site, such as exploited oil field, saline formation or below the seabed.  Moreover, future monitoring plans will be needed to prevent and remediate deficient storage.

source: IPCC, 2005

In principle, there are three methods of carbon capture[1, 2],

1. Postcombustion, in other words, the CO2 is removed after combustion of the fossil fuel.  This technology uses chemical solvents to separate CO2 and is currently applied  to power plants as well as other industrial applications.
2. Precombustion, i.e., the fossil fuel is partially oxidized, and H2 and carbon are separated before combustion taking place. 
3. Oxyfuel combustion, coal or gas are burned in oxygen instead of air to yield CO2 and water.

Likely, there are two main storage options are being considered, geological storage and mineral storage. The former method involves directly inject CO2 into underground geological formations, for example, oil fields, gas fields and saline formations etc.. In the latter one, the CO2 is reacted with metal oxides, which in turn produces stable carbonates. However, according to IPCC, a power plant equipped with CCS using mineral storage will need 60-180% more energy than one without CCS.

So far so good? One may start to worry about the safety issues accompanying this so-called mitigation technology. Moreover, the concern can be put in this way, does it sound more like an excuse of keeping on the track of using fossil fuels? Or does it can help to achieve Kyoto protocol targets without sacrificing a 'civilized' living standard? We may need more research and scientific evidence to make a plausible conclusion.  I'll address more about these considerations of applying CCS in the present and future commercial scale power stations in my following blogs.

References:
1.Wikipedia: CCS
2. R.Stuart Haszeldine, Carbon Capture and Storage: how green can black be, science, 2009.
 

The opening

 Photo taken in Taitung, Taiwan.

The Royal Society held a seminar, Towards a low carbon future in 2008, the key conclusion arising  from the meeting was that 'there is no single best solution in moving towards a low carbon future : an integrated approach making best use of all available technologies is required.'.  In the meeting's summary report,  several issues addressed regarding how to achieve a low carbon economy in terms of short, medium and long-term developments. Following are some addressed topics:

• Decarbonization of the electricity supply (including renewable energy and bioenergy)
• Major gains in energy efficiency and energy savings (including energy storage and green architectures)
• Decarbonization of transport and agricultural sector
• A coherent portfolio of policy measures and specific mechanisms

In this Blog, I'll explore among these above-mentioned issues and review related scientific news and papers, hope you'll enjoy it in a low carbon way.

[Future] Creating fuel from air and water?

A British company, Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS), says it can produce hydrocarbon liquid fuel from water and air. The AFS process uses renewable energy to extract carbon dioxide from air and electrolyse water to acquire hydrogen. Once CO2 and hydrogen reacted through fuel reactor, producing methanol which can be converted into gasoline to fuel motorsports.   

The Air Fuel Synthesis process 

Picture from http://www.dw.de

Getting this far has taken almost two and a half years and cost $1.6 million (1.23 million euros), provided by two private investors.

Peter Harrison, chief executive officer of the Darlington-based start-up, says "the process does use energy to take CO2 from the air," but that energy savings could be gained by using leftover carbon from brewing and distillery processes.

Capturing carbon dioxide from the air could present another potential climate benefit by extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, Harrison says. A plant producing 1,000 tons of "air fuel" would extract up to 1 million tons of CO2 every year.

Too good to be true?

They claim that most of the components of the AFS process exist either as demonstrations or are available off the shelf. In addition, they have  proposed the AFS timetable for delivering commercial carbon-neutral, sustainable fuels 2012 – 2015 Demonstration facility and initial commercial projects. This sound technology could be a potential solution to the fossil fuel 's carbon footprint and not sacrifice agricultural land use as biofuels, however, the production of fuel in this very beginning stage is only 1-10 tonnes a day, and there will a not too short journey to reach the commercial operation to replace most of the non-renewable energy.

References:

AFS:http://www.airfuelsynthesis.com/index.php

DW: http://www.dw.de/new-air-fuel-technique-to-boost-energy-mix/a-16326571

[Past]The end-Permian mass extinction coincided with inhospitably high temperature

The earth has been through several extinction events during the past 4.6 billion years...

The Permian-Triassic extinction event has been described as "mother of all extinction",which occurred 252.28 million years ago with great biodiversity loss. There were up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. It is the only known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all families and 83% of all genera became extinct. Several mechanisms of the massive extinctions  have been proposed, a gradual environmental change of earlier phase and more catastrophic events (siberian eruptions of CO2)during latter phase. [1]

One recent research [2] proposes that the end-Permian mass extinction and the near-absence of equatorial terrestrial fauna and flora during early Triassic are coincided with thermal maxima.

Figure 1: Early Triassic paleogeography showing rare equatorial occurrence of tetrapod,ichthyofauna and fish.[2]

Figure 2: They used both conodont apatite* oxygen isotope ratio and carbon isotope ratio as proxies reconstructing Late Permian to Middle Triassic equatorial sea water temperatures. The entire Early Triassic record indicates temperatures in excess of Modern Equatorial  Sea Surface Temperatures (annual mean SST).Furthermore, biodiversity of major marine groups and temperatures trends showing inverse relationship: low diversity in Griesbachian and Smithian correlates with peak temperature, whereas peak diversity corresponds to cool climate around the Dienerian-Smithian boundary.[2]

In summation, Sun et al. have examined the relation between global warming and extinction in the Early Triassic. The equatorial Pangea "tetrapod gap " and end-Permian to Middle Triassic global "coral gap"  indicates that lethally temperature conditions could progressively force fauna and floral to vacate the tropics and move to higher latitudes. Together with the rapid temperature rise, other synergetic factors  such as the spread of marine anoxia, may also have profound influence on marine extinction.  

References:
[1]Wikipedia: permian-triassic extinction event

[2] Lethally Hot Temperatures During the Early Triassic Greenhouse, Yadong Sun et al., Science, vol 338, 19 October, 2012.

* conodonts are extinct chordates resembling eels, being known from enigmatic tooth-like microfossils a proxy for thermal alteration in the host rock. wikipedia