Natural gas combustion in power plants generates electricity together with carbon dioxide. While carbon capture and storage technologies exist for removing carbon dioxide from the waste stream, they remain expensive and not factored in as part of the design of new natural gas power plants. A new scheme, however, may help realise natural gas power … More Reducing carbon emissions from natural gas power plants
Arctic permafrost serves as a permanent store of carbon given its perennial frozen nature. However, with global warming and rapidly rising temperatures in the Arctic, many areas of the Arctic permafrost have thawed. With microbial activity degrading the trapped carbon in the permafrost, significant releases of methane and carbon dioxide would contribute to the total … More Alaska tundra has become a source of carbon dioxide
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) refers to the capture of carbon dioxide from waste gas streams such as flue gas of power stations and store it without release into the atmosphere. Typically, captured carbon dioxide are either stored underground in geological formations or sequestered after separating the compounds formed between carbon dioxide and amine solutions … More Carbon capture and use utilize carbon dioxide for producing useful products
Multiple epochs define human civilisation evolution throughout the ages. But, according to scientific studies, the influence we have had on our planet has led to the definition of a new epoch in human civilisation, the Anthropocene. Specifically, given that humans have wielded significant influence on the planet, primarily through industrial revolution and the attendant evolution … More Definition of Anthropocene
I am starting a new series of short posts that aims at pointing out interesting scientific articles I have read, as well as their significance and implications. A short summary will accompany the title of the article explaining the essence and theme underlying the research article as well as its potential application areas or research … More Heterostructured composites for photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into methane
Peatland, or partially decomposed organic matter, comprises 3% of the world’s land surface area, but holds about twice the total amount of carbon stored in biomass on Earth. This explains why there has been so much attention on the protection of the world’s peatland such as those in the Arctic permafrost zone as well as … More Peatland occupies 3% of the world’s surface but holds twice of the carbon stored in biomass on Earth
Winters are shorter and temperature fluctuations between seasons are more extreme. More importantly, it has been scientifically proven that Earth is warming as measured by average surface temperatures. With a warming trend that is unlikely to be abated, significant changes will occur in atmospheric circulation and temperature resultant from a progressive increase in average carbon … More Climate sensitivity and how close are we to dangerous anthropogenic interference in climate change?
Hydropower produced by turbines from water flowing down a large reservoir retained by a dam is one renewable energy source tapped by countries endowed with rivers traversing a terrain with large elevation changes. Often touted to be clean, non-polluting and sustainable, hydroelectric power generation does have environmental concerns, primarily in the area of impacting the … More Unaccounted for greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric power plants
Looking at life with a scientific lens 