Carbon Footprint
Sustainability push unites Sandia facilities and research
December 19, 2012 9:28 am | News | Comments
Sandia National Laboratories has launched a Sustainability Innovation Foundry that combines laboratories-wide resource conservation with efforts to turn research in fields related to sustainability into business opportunities. Sandia is on track to meet an ambitious goal of cutting energy intensity in buildings 30% by 2015, using a 2005 baseline, and it hopes that what it has learned as part of this effort will carry over into general industry practices.
Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rain forest
May 21, 2013 2:58 pm | by Hannah Hickey, University of Washington | News | Comments
Until recently people believed much of the rain...
Experts: Carbon dioxide record illustrates “scary” trend
May 13, 2013 7:52 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | Comments
The old saying that "what goes up must come down" doesn't apply to carbon dioxide...
Scientists reveal relationship between sea floor lava and deep-carbon cycle
May 3, 2013 12:16 pm | News | Comments
A team from the Smithsonian and the University of Rhode Island has found unsuspected...
Report: Cutting specific atmospheric pollutants would slow sea level rise
April 15, 2013 12:56 pm | News | CommentsNew research indicates that cutting emissions of certain pollutants can greatly slow sea level rise this century. Scientists focussing on emissions of four heat-trapping pollutants—methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon—found that reductions these pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could temporarily forestall the rate of sea level rise by roughly 25 to 50%.
Metal-organic framework offers efficient carbon capture
March 5, 2013 2:31 pm | by Vickie Chachere, University of South Florida | News | CommentsChemists at the University of South Florida and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have discovered a more efficient, less expensive and reusable material for carbon dioxide capture and separation. The highly efficient mechanism utilizes a previously underused material—known as SIFSIX-1-Cu—that attracts carbon atoms.
Affordable sensor could detect a single molecule of carbon dioxide
February 4, 2013 9:20 am | News | CommentsCurrent sensors used to detect CO2 at surface sites are either very expensive or they use a lot of energy. And they’re not as accurate as they could be. Researchers in Canada are working on single nanowire transistors that could bring sensor technology up to speed with other technologies required for carbon capture and storage.
Reduce greenhouse gas by exporting coal?
January 16, 2013 9:36 am | News | CommentsWestern U.S. coal companies looking to expand sales to China will likely succeed, according to Stanford University economist Frank Wolak. But, due to energy market dynamics in the United States, those coal exports are likely to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases.
Study: Major cuts to surging carbon dioxide emissions needed now
January 7, 2013 9:43 am | News | CommentsHalting climate change will require "a fundamental and disruptive overhaul of the global energy system" to eradicate harmful carbon dioxide emissions, not just stabilize them, according to new findings by University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) and other scientists.
Study: Kerosene lamps spew black carbon, should be replaced
November 29, 2012 9:12 am | by Sarah Yang, UC Berkeley | News | CommentsResults from field and lab tests have found that 7 to 9% of the kerosene in wick lamps—used for light in 250-300 million households without electricity—is converted to black carbon when burned. In comparison, only half of 1% of the emissions from burning wood is converted to black carbon. Kerosene is the primary source of light for more than a billion people in developing nations.
Capturing carbon with clever trapdoors
November 8, 2012 11:22 am | News | CommentsOne method of capturing carbon dioxide is through molecular sieve that is an ultra-fine filter system that captures a variety of molecules that need further filtering. Engineers in Australia have developed new sieve that allows only carbon dioxide molecules to be trapped and stored, helping to eliminate the cost and energy typically required for filtering.
Air pollution study clears the air on diesel versus gas emissions
October 23, 2012 9:49 am | by Sarah Yang, UC Berkeley | News | CommentsSecondary organic aerosol (SOA) is a major component of smog, and people have long argued whether large diesel trucks are a bigger source of this pollution than gasoline-fueled cars. Recent University of California Berkeley research shows that diesel exhaust contributes 15 times more than gas emissions per liter of fuel burned, and can be responsible for a majority of a region’s SOA.
Food vs. fuel: Is there surplus land for bioenergy?
October 18, 2012 8:37 am | News | CommentsIncreasing demand for bioenergy feedstock is generating land-use conflicts and food vs. fuel controversies. An team of 11 scientists from seven European countries and the United States have recently published a study that gives scientific background to the debate. It supports a reassessment of the land available for bioenergy feedstock production.
Elevated indoor carbon dioxide impairs decision-making performance
October 18, 2012 8:04 am | News | CommentsOverturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide can significantly impair people's decision-making performance. The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density.
The mathematics of leaf decay
October 4, 2012 4:48 am | by Jennifer Chu | News | CommentsThe natural decay of organic carbon contributes more than 90% of the yearly carbon dioxide released into Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Understanding the rate at which leaves decay can help scientists predict this global flux of carbon dioxide. But a single leaf may undergo different rates of decay depending on a number of variables. Researchers have just built a mathematical model that incorporates these variables, and have discovered a commonality within the diversity of leaf decay.
The chemical memory of seawater
October 2, 2012 8:52 am | News | CommentsWater does not forget, says Prof. Boris Koch, a chemist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. With the combination of some new techniques, Koch and colleagues can now identify and retrace some of the biomolecular tracks left by living organism. This dissolved organic matter, detectable with mass spectrometry, is one of the largest active, organic carbon reservoirs on earth.
Engineers mine big data to faster assess carbon footprints
September 13, 2012 11:28 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Columbia University have developed a new software that can simultaneously calculate the carbon footprints of thousands of products faster than ever before. The software complies with the latest product LCA guidelines sponsored by the World Resources Institute, and any carbon footprint it calculates can easily be audited against this standard.
Methane source discovered in the underbrush
September 7, 2012 9:46 am | News | CommentsSome six years ago scientific textbooks had to be updated because of the surprising discovery made by a research group in Germany led by Frank Keppler that plants produce methane in an oxygen-rich environment. It had been previously thought that biogenic methane could only be formed during the decomposition of organic material under strictly anoxic conditions. Now, Keppler’s group has now made another fascinating new observation: Fungi produce methane.
Study: More carbon dioxide leads to less clouds
September 5, 2012 4:36 am | News | CommentsIt is common knowledge that the warmer the air, the more water can evaporate. Researchers in Europe have now established that this is not always the case: Although an increase in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide makes the climate warmer, it also allows less water to evaporate. This finding has informed a set of new calculations for climate modeling.
Atmospheric heating by black carbon aerosol re-evaluated
August 31, 2012 6:40 am | News | CommentsViewed as a potential target in the global effort to reduce climate change, atmospheric black carbon particles absorb significantly less sunlight than scientists have predicted. In the first field study of it kind, researchers found that soot particles absorb significantly less sunlight than predicted by models, raising new questions about the impact of black carbon on atmospheric warming.
Speeding the search for better carbon capture
August 21, 2012 3:46 am | News | CommentsLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers helped develop the first computational model to accurately predict the interactions between flue gases and a special variety of the carbon dioxide-capturing molecular systems known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). This new model should greatly accelerate the search for new low-cost and efficient ways to burn coal without exacerbating global climate change.
Are methane hydrates dissolving?
August 13, 2012 8:57 am | News | CommentsThe average temperature of oceans is rising along with the temperatures in the atmosphere, raising concern that ice-like compounds called methane hydrates could dissolve this powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. An expedition to Spitsbergen in the high Arctic could help answer this question.
Earth still absorbing carbon dioxide even as emissions rise
August 1, 2012 11:40 am | News | CommentsDespite sharp increases in carbon dioxide emissions by humans in recent decades that are warming the planet, Earth’s vegetation and oceans continue to soak up about half of them, according to a new study which showed global carbon dioxide uptake by Earth’s sinks essentially doubled from 1960 to 2010.
X-rays pave way for low cost, large scale carbon capture
August 1, 2012 4:17 am | News | CommentsCurrent techniques for post-combustion carbon capture filter out carbon dioxide from a power plant’s flue gases as they travel up a chimney. These methods can prevent 80 to 90% of a power plant’s carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere, but researchers in the U.K. are trying to improve on that, using their nation’s synchrotron to determine the mechanism for the use of calcium oxide-based material as carbon dioxide sorbents.
How carbon is stored in the Southern Ocean
July 30, 2012 10:04 am | by Huw Morgan | News | CommentsThe Southern Ocean is an important carbon sink. Around 40% of the annual global carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the world’s oceans enter through this region. A team of British and Australian scientists has recently discovered how this carbon is drawn down from the surface of the Southern Ocean to the deep waters beneath.
New carbon accounting method to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use
July 18, 2012 7:27 pm | News | CommentsIn 2011, corn was planted on more than 92 million acres in the U.S. Because corn is a nitrogen-loving plant, farmers must use synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to their fields every year to achieve their crop target. However, nitrogen is hard to contain and can negatively affect the environment. Researchers have come up with a solution, however, and it’s tied to the relationship between nitrates and nitrous oxide emissions.
Seagrasses can store as much carbon as forests
May 22, 2012 12:45 pm | News | CommentsThe first global analysis of carbon stored in seagrasses has revealed a surprising figure. While a typical terrestrial forest stores about 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, most of which is in the form of wood, coastal seagrasses can account for 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer. Their global impact is significant as well.
Commercial building owners can save big with energy controls
April 20, 2012 7:58 am | News | CommentsAccording to a recent report from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38% on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a handful of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems more energy efficient.
Monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric carbon questions
April 19, 2012 2:14 pm | News | CommentsA University of Colorado Boulder-led team has developed a new monitoring system to analyze and compare emissions from man-made fossil fuels and trace gases in the atmosphere, a technique that likely could be used to monitor the effectiveness of measures regulating greenhouse gases.
