Engineers Explore Environmental Concerns of Nanotechnology
Peter Vikesland and Linsey Marr, both associate professors of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, are members of the national Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT) at Virginia Tech. They are exploring the impact of nanotechnology research on the environment. (Virginia Tech Photo)
As researchers around the world hasten to employ nanotechnology to improve production methods for applications that range from manufacturing materials to creating new pharmaceutical drugs, a separate but equally compelling challenge exists.
History has shown that previous industrial revolutions, such as those involving asbestos and chloroflurocarbons, have had some serious environmental impacts. Might nanotechnology also pose a risk?
Linsey Marr and Peter Vikesland, faculty members in the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, are part of the national Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2008. Along with Michael Hochella, University Distinguished Professor of Geosciences, they represent Virginia Tech’s efforts in a nine-member consortium awarded $14 million over five years, starting in 2008. Virginia Tech’s portion is $1.75 million.
CEINT is dedicated to elucidating the relationship between a vast array of nanomaterials — from natural, to manufactured, to those produced incidentally by human activities — and their potential environmental exposure, biological effects, and ecological consequences. It will focus on the fate and transport of natural and manufactured nanomaterials in ecosystems. (more…)
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Scientists’ Breakthrough in Production of Biofuels
Professor Will Zimmerman, the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Sheffield
A team of scientists from the University of Sheffield have scooped an international award in recognition of their work on an innovative device which will make the production of alternative biofuels more energy efficient.
The research team has adapted a unique bioreactor for use in the production of alternative renewable fuels, to replace fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel. The manufacture of biofuels currently requires vast amounts of power and when the process uses too much energy, it is uneconomic. This new method consumes much less energy and could prove to be vital to the economic, green production of alternative fuels.
The team have devised an air-lift loop bioreactor which creates microbubbles using 18% less energy consumption. Microbubbles are miniature gas bubbles of less than 50 microns diameter in water. They are able to transfer materials in a bioreactor much more rapidly than larger bubbles produced by conventional bubble generation techniques and they consume much less energy. The team’s unique adaption of the bioreactor and creation of microbubbles has the potential to revolutionise the energy-efficient production of biofuels.
In recognition of this breakthrough, the team have been awarded the Moulton Medal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers, which recognises the best paper published in the Institution’s journal during the year. The team also submitted their project as a poster to the 6th Annual bioProcessUK conference, where it picked up the Best Poster Award. (more…)
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The Future of Energy: An Emerging Science by Dr. Thomas Valone
A new 220 page softcover book discusses the latest emerging energy technologies and mankind’s history of energy and its future trends. Includes an examination of the sociopolitical aspects of man’s use of energy.
In a world of uncertainty about the future, The Future of Energy: An Emerging Science by Thomas Valone offers “…hope for solving the world’s looming energy shortage,” according to Science magazine, since it considers things we have barely imagined in search of new carbon-free technologies.
Containing a myriad of new energy technologies assembled into archetypal categories, a sociological perspective emerges along with the science. Well funded, emerging energy sources such as dense plasma focus fusion, powdered metal-burning engines, wireless transmission of electricity, space-based solar power, piezoelectric highway electricity generators and zero point energy are given simple and short summaries.
Recent Conferences on Future Energy sponsored by the author’s institute, offering the best examples of emerging future energy sources, are also listed and described.
“[I]t would be foolhardy not to assess a broad spectrum of advanced energy sources, converters, and enabling technologies.” - Martin Hoffert, et al., Science, Vol. 300, 25 April 2003, p. 581 (more…)
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12/21/2012: Apocalypse Now, Later or Never?
Already one of the most talked about movies of the year, 2012 opens in theaters Nov. 13th. It is directed by Roland Emmerich and stars Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover and John Cusack.
Will the year 2012 spell the end of life on Earth as we know it? Columbia Pictures’ upcoming disaster movie “2012″ suggests that it will. Based loosely on interpretations of the Mayan long count calendar, which ends its 5,125-year cycle on December 21, 2012, the movie’s trailer features the tagline, “Mankind’s earliest civilization warned us this day was coming.”
But judging by the track records of other ancient apocalyptic traditions, we probably have nothing to worry about, says Allen Kerkeslager, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Kerkeslager has taught courses dealing with the apocalyptic traditions of other ancient cultures including Persian Zoroastrians and early Jewish groups.
Those drawn to concepts of the apocalypse for religious and cultural reasons have often pointed to various events in history as signs of a coming Armageddon, Kerkeslager says. (more…)
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Global Science Initiative Planned To Tackle World’s Looming Challenges
Professor Hawking holds a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and is a Patron of the new Perimeter Scholars International program. (Photo NASA)
The end of the Quantum to Cosmos Festival marks the beginning of preparations for the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI), an international science conference expected to take place in Waterloo Region in spring, 2011.
The global gathering will see international researchers, business leaders and public policy decision-makers help identify actions in the science and technology arena that must be taken in order to seize opportunities in the decades ahead and monitor progress against those actions.
The WGSI will focus on the role that science and technology can play in addressing the world’s most fundamental social, environmental and economic challenges. The conference will provide leading thinkers with a forum in which to view the long term and identify clear actions. Areas of provincial, national and global concern may include energy, quantum information and water resources. (more…)
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Lumenhaus Kindles Solar Possibilities for Sustainable House Building
A team of faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students spanning four colleges — the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, the College of Engineering, the Pamplin College of Business, and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences — has created a solar-powered house for the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, taking place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. through Oct 17, 2009.
An attribute of the Virginia Tech entry that makes an immediate impression is the Eclipsis system — an advanced building façade comprising two layers: a metal shutter shade and a translucent insulating panel. The shutter shade slides along the north and south façades, providing protection from direct sunlight while simultaneously allowing for indirect, natural lighting, views to the exterior and privacy to those inside. The sliding insulating panel is a translucent polycarbonate panel filled with aerogel. Aerogel is a super lightweight, highly insulating translucent material that provides insulation equivalent to a typical sold wall during harsh weather conditions without blocking natural light.
Known as Lumenhaus, the Virginia Tech structure will compete against 19 other universities to determine which team has designed and built the most efficient, operational solar-powered house to address evolving quality of life issues.
Virginia Tech is one of only two U.S. universities invited to compete in the first Solar Decathlon Europe, which will take place in Madrid in June 2010. The Solar Decathlon Europe competition is modeled on the biennial U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.
Learn more about Lumenhaus at www.lumenhaus.com.
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Scientists Outline Planetary Boundaries: A Safe Operating Space for Humanity
New approaches are needed to help humanity deal with climate change and other global environmental threats that lie ahead in the 21st century, according to a group of 28 internationally renowned scientists.
The scientists propose that global biophysical boundaries, identified on the basis of the scientific understanding of the earth system, can define a “safe planetary operating space” that will allow humanity to continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. This new approach to sustainable development is conveyed in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature. The authors have made a first attempt to identify and quantify a set of nine planetary boundaries, including climate change, freshwater use, biological diversity, and aerosol loading.
The research was performed by a working group at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), in cooperation with the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.
One important strand of the research behind this article is based in the global project known as IHOPE. The goal of the Integrated History and future Of People on Earth (IHOPE) project is to understand the interactions of the environmental and human process over the ten to hundred millennia to determine how human and biophysical changes have contributed to Earth system dynamics. The IHOPE working group is assembled at NCEAS today. (more…)
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Global Environmental Governance: Quest for Symphony
The Quest for Symphony outlines the past, present, and future of global environmental governance in a sixteen-minute documentary centered on interviews with key participants at the 25th United Nations Environment Programme’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi, Kenya in February 2009. Produced by Maria Ivanova and Joe Ageyo, The Quest for Symphony has been called “the white paper on global environmental governance in images,” and is unique as a documentary focused solely on the challenges and successes of the GEG system and the options for reform. Watch it now:
Global Environmental Governance: Quest for Symphony from GEG Project on Vimeo.
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Man-Made Crises ‘Outrunning Our Ability to Deal With Them’, Scientists Warn
A pessimistic vision of the future.
The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned.
In today’s issue of the leading international journal Science, the researchers say that nations alone are unable to resolve the sorts of planet-wide challenges now arising.
Pointing to global action on ozone depletion (the Montreal Protocol), high seas fisheries and antibiotic drug resistance as examples, they call for a new order of cooperative international institutions capable of dealing with issues like climate change – and enforcing compliance where necessary. (more…)
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Scientists Seek New Emphases in Arctic Climate Change Research
PhD student Ken Tape digging a pit to measure physical parameters of snow near an experimental snow fence at Toolik Field Station in November of 2006. (Photo: Greg Goldsmith)
Much of circumpolar Arctic research focuses on the physical, direct changes resulting from climate warming such as sea ice retreat and temperature increases. “What’s understudied is the living component of the Arctic and that includes humans,” said Syndonia “Donie” Bret-Harte, associate professor of biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and co-author of a paper to be published September 11, 2009 in the journal Science.
The paper reviews current knowledge on the ecological consequences of climate change on the circumpolar Arctic and issues a call for action in several areas of global climate change research. (more…)
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Possible Geoengineering Responses to Climate Emergencies
A schematic representation of various geoengineering and carbon storage proposals. (Diagram by Kathleen Smith/LLNL)
The future of the Earth could rest on potentially dangerous and unproven geoengineering technologies unless emissions of carbon dioxide can be greatly reduced, a new study has found.
The report (published September 1, by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science) found that unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far, additional action in the form of geoengineering will be necessary to cool the planet. However, the report identified major uncertainties regarding the effectiveness, costs, and environmental impacts of geoengineering technologies.
“Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is more important than ever,” said coauthor Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, “but even with our best efforts, the Earth is likely to continue warming throughout this century due to inertia in the climate system. Cutting emissions can reduce but cannot eliminate the risk of a climate emergency.” Possible climate emergencies include rapid collapse of the Greenland ice sheet into the sea causing major sea level rise, a shift in rainfall patterns causing massive global crop failures, or melting Arctic permafrost causing catastrophic release of the powerful greenhouse gas methane. (more…)
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They’re Alive! Megacities Breathe, Consume Energy, Excrete Wastes and Pollute
Smog in Cairo, Egypt, one of the world's megacities. (Wikimedia Commons)
A scientific trend to view the world’s biggest cities as analogous to living, breathing organisms is fostering a deep new understanding of how poor air quality in megacities can harm residents, people living far downwind, and also play a major role in global climate change. That’s the conclusion of a report on the “urban metabolism” model of megacities presented today in Washington, DC at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Charles Kolb, Ph.D., reports that the concept of urban metabolism has existed for decades. It views large cities as living entities that consume energy, food, water, and other raw materials, and release wastes. The releases include carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas; air pollutants, sewage and other water pollutants; and even excess heat that collects in vast expanses of concrete pavement and stone buildings. Humans directly produce a significant share of this waste, but emissions from industrial, power generation and transportation systems respire the largest quantities of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. Other urban metabolizers include sewage systems, landfills, domestic pets and pests like rats, which in some cities outnumber people. (more…)
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DOE’s $2.4 Billion Grants to Accelerate Development of Electric Vehicles Commended
Aptera's Super-MPG Electric Typ-1 e Car
The IEEE-USA has commended the Department of Energy for awarding $2.4 billion in grants to fund 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects. “We welcome these investments, because electrifying transportation addresses two of our greatest needs: reducing our consumption of petroleum and limiting the release of greenhouse gases,” IEEE-USA President Gordon Day said.
The grants are the largest single investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles. When coupled with an expected $2.4 billion in cost share from the grant awardees, they are expected to create thousands of jobs in the U.S. battery and automotive industries. General Motors will receive about $241 million, Ford will get nearly $100 million and Chrysler $70 million. (more…)
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More ‘Green’ Energy from Algae
Tomorrow's energy suppliers may be microalgae under the microscope. (Photo by Florian Lehr)
In view of the shortage of petrochemical resources and climate change, development of CO2-neutral sustainable fuels is one of the most urgent challenges of our times. Energy plants like rape or oil palm are being discussed fervently, as they may also be used for food production. Hence, cultivation of microalgae may contribute decisively to tomorrow’s energy supply. For energy production from microalgae, KIT scientists are developing closed photo-bioreactors and novel cell disruption methods.
Microalgae are monocellular, plant-like organisms engaged in photosynthesis and converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into biomass. From this biomass, both potential resources and active substances as well as fuels like biodiesel may be produced. While growing, algae take up the amount of CO2 that is later released again when they are used for energy production. Hence, energy from algae can be produced in a CO2-neutral manner contrary to conventional energy carriers. (more…)
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Scientists Warn Restoration-Based Environmental Markets May Not Improve Ecosystem Health
Dr. Margaret Palmer, director of the Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.
While policymakers across of the globe are relying on environmental restoration projects to fuel emerging market-based environmental programs, an article in the July 31 edition of Science by two noted ecologists warns that these programs still lack the scientific certainty needed to ensure that restoration projects deliver the environmental improvements being marketed.
Markets identify the benefits humans derive from ecosystems, called ecosystem services, and associate them with economic values which can be bought, sold or traded. The scientists, Dr. Margaret Palmer and Dr. Solange Filoso of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, raise concerns that there is insufficient scientific understanding of the restoration process, namely, how to alter a landscape or coastal habitat to achieve the environmental benefits that are marketed.
“Both locally and nationally, policymakers are considering market-based environmental restoration programs where the science does not yet conclusively show that environment health will improve once the ‘restoration’ is completed,” said Dr. Palmer. “These programs may very well make economic sense, but the jury is still out whether or not the local environment will ultimately benefit.” (more…)
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Humans “Damaging the Oceans”
Dr Andrew Brierley of St Andrews University, Scotland aboard the RRS James Cook on its first ECOMAR cruise to the mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world’s oceans in profound and damaging ways is outlined in a new scientific discussion paper released today.
Man-made carbon emissions “are affecting marine biological processes from genes to ecosystems over scales from rock pools to ocean basins, impacting ecosystem services and threatening human food security,” the study by Professor Mike Kingsford of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University and colleague Dr Andrew Brierley of St Andrews University, Scotland, warns.
Their review, published in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology, says that rates of physical change in the oceans are unprecedented in some cases, and change in ocean life is likely to be equally quick.
These include changes in the areas fish and other sea species can inhabit, invasions, extinctions and major shifts in marine ecosystems. (more…)
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Technology On Way to Forecasting Humanity’s Needs
Vespignani is the James H. Rudy Professor of Informatics and adjunct professor of physics and statistics at IU, where he is also the director of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (CNetS) at IU's Pervasive Technology Institute and the IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing.
Much as meteorologists predict the path and intensity of hurricanes, Indiana University’s Alessandro Vespignani believes we will one day predict with unprecedented foresight, specificity and scale such things as the economic and social effects of billions of new Internet users in China and India, or the exact location and number of airline flights to cancel around the world in order to halt the spread of a pandemic.
In tomorrow’s (July 24) “Perspectives” section of the journal Science, Vespignani writes that advances in complex networks theory and modeling, along with access to new data, will enable humans to achieve true predictive power in areas never before imagined. This capability will be realized as the one wild card in the mix — the social behavior of large aggregates of humans — becomes more definable through progress in data gathering, new informatics tools and increases in computational power.
Researchers have already shown they can track the movement of as many as 100,000 people at a time over six months using mobile phone data, and use worldwide currency traffic as a proxy for human mobility. There are sensors and tags generating data at micro, one-to-one interaction levels, much as Bluetooth, Global Positioning Systems and WiFi leave behind detailed traces of our lives. (more…)
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34 US Nobel Laureates Urge Inclusion of $150 Billion in Climate Legislation
A group of 34 U.S. Nobel Laureates is calling on President Obama to urge Congress to include the president’s proposed $150 billion Clean Energy Technology Fund in the climate legislation it is considering. The climate bill approved by the House in June falls far short of this goal, they told the president in a letter sent to the White House today.
“The stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed if the U.S., as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at an affordable cost,” they wrote.
“This stable R&D spending is not a luxury,” they added. “[I]t is in fact necessary because rapid scientific and technical progress is crucial to achieving” U.S. goals in energy and climate and making the cost affordable. (more…)
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40th Anniversary of the First Manned Moon Landing - Today’s Scientists Point to New Frontiers
The fuzzy black and white photo is from an automatic video camera that recorded Neil Armstrong coming down the ladder and taking his first step on the moon. A few minutes later, Neil Armstrong photographed Buzz as he became the second human to walk on the moon’s surface. (NASA)
Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, the United States achieved an historic first when Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon. Armstrong’s now famous words, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” fulfilled the challenge set out nearly a decade earlier by President John F. Kennedy to land a man on the moon.
America’s race to the moon also launched a generation of scientists. They were inspired by a sense of patriotism and the wonders of space and enabled by the country’s newfound commitment to science following the Soviets’ successful launch of the Sputnik satellite. The new R&D enterprise, built to support America’s scientific ambitions and based largely on federally-funded research conducted at universities across the country, has had a remarkable effect on society and the economy. It has produced innovations in health, technology, energy, security, and defense. It has helped fuel the nation’s economic growth. And, it has educated and trained new generations of scientists, engineers and doctors.
In anticipation of the anniversary of the first moon walk, The Science Coalition asked university researchers across the country to reflect on that event and share their thoughts about the next frontiers in science and what America must do to ensure that these scientific frontiers are reached. While each response is unique and reflective of the background of the respondent, together they make clear that there are many exciting new horizons in science. Research in such areas as energy and climate change, curing human disease, understanding the human genome, and answering questions about the Universe are, indeed, leading us to new frontiers. (more…)
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Wood Stoves - A Viable Home Heat Source for the Future?
The stress of rising natural gas prices is leading many consumers to rethink how they heat their homes. For some this means moving towards modern alternative energy options, while others have been turning to a more traditional method for a solution to these rising costs. In Canada and the United States, wood burning stoves have been reevaluated as a potentially viable option for home heating.
The case for modern woodstoves has developed with the improvement of the products on the market, as wood heating technology has substantially advanced in recent years. With the advanced secondary combustion systems on Environmental Protection Agency certified woodstoves, they are now 95% more efficient than their predecessors. (more…)
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U.S. Space Program Should Align With Broader National Goals
The U.S. civil space program should be aligned with widely acknowledged national challenges, says a new report from the National Research Council. Aligning the program with pressing issues – environmental, economic, and strategic – is a national imperative, and will continue to grow in importance. Coordination across federal agencies, combined with a competent technical work force, effective infrastructure, and investment in technology and innovation, would lay the foundation for a purposeful, strategic U.S. space program that would serve national interests.
(more…)
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One Step Closer to a Hydrogen Economy
Dr. Ragaiy Zidan has conducted internationally recognized research on materials for hydrogen storage.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory have created a reversible route to generate aluminum hydride, a high capacity hydrogen storage material. This achievement is not only expected to accelerate the development of a whole class of storage materials, but also has far reaching applications in areas spanning energy technology and synthetic chemistry.
“We believe our research has provided a feasible route to regenerate aluminum hydride, a high capacity hydrogen storage material,” says Dr. Ragaiy Zidan of SRNL, lead researcher on the project. The SRNL team, supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has developed a novel closed cycle for producing aluminum hydride (AlH3), also known as alane, that potentially offers a cost-effective method of regenerating the hydrogen storing material in a way that allows it to repeatedly release and recharge its hydrogen. In this process, the hydride is made via an electrochemical method, and the starting material is regenerated directly with hydrogen. Although many attempts have been made in the past to make alane electrochemically, none of these previous attempts were totally successful. (more…)
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Super-Size Deposits of Frozen Carbon Threat to Climate Change
Frozen soil sediment deposit in Siberia. (Credit: Edward A. G. Schuur)
The vast amount of carbon stored in the arctic and boreal regions of the world is more than double that previously estimated, according to a study published this week.
The amount of carbon in frozen soils, sediments and river deltas (permafrost) raises new concerns over the role of the northern regions as future sources of greenhouse gases.
“We now estimate the deposits contain over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere”, said Dr. Charles Tarnocai, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, and lead author.
Dr. Pep Canadell, Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project at CSIRO, Australia, and co-author of the study says that the existence of these super-sized deposits of frozen carbon means that any thawing of permafrost due to global warming may lead to significant emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. (more…)
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Fraunhofer Know-How for the Ecological Model City Masdar
The city of the future is currently being constructed on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. Masdar City shall be supplied exclusively with renewable energy and produce neither carbon dioxide nor waste. Fraunhofer researchers are involved in the development of new technologies for planning and realising the ecological model city.
On June 21, 2009, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, representing the Masdar City Project, signed a cooperative agreement for a strategic partnership. The aim of the cooperation between the largest European institution for applied research and the ecological futuristic city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is firstly to found a joint project group. Over the long term the goal is to establish a close cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development and building planning. Participating in the cooperation are the Fraunhofer Institutes for Industrial Engineering IAO and for Building Physics IBP as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. (more…)
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