Atmospheric CO2 Mixing Ratios Over China
Trucks and pedestrians share a road in Linfen, China. Linfen has been named by some organizations as the dirtiest city in the world.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas regulated by the Kyoto Protocol. Human activities, such as fossil fuel burning and land use change, are major emitters of CO2, which is widely recognized as drivers of global warming and climate change. In the past decades, the field campaign and research program were only conducted at a few sites in China by different agencies. However, none of those measurements could effectively document spatial and temporal distributions of atmospheric CO2 and provide essential information for our understanding of regional differences and distributions over China. Thus, it is essential to establish a long-term observational network at multiple sites and carefully calibrate on internationally agreed reference scales with better quality controls.
Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences in Beijing initiated network observation at the four Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) stations in China: Waliguan (36.29ºN, 100.90ºE, 3816m asl) in remote western China, Shangdianzi (40.39ºN, 117.07ºE, 293.9m asl) in northeast Beijing, Lin’an (30.3ºN, 119.73ºE, 138m asl) in Yangtze Delta, and Longfengshan (44.73ºN, 127.6ºE, 310m asl) in northeastern China. It shows for the first time the atmospheric CO2 mixing ratios and regional differences based on internationally recognized weekly air sampling data from September 2006 to August 2007. The study is reported in Issue 52 (November, 2009) of Science in China Series D: Earth (more…)
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U.S. Bill Aims To Protect Public from Exposure to Harmful Chemicals
The Endocrine Society has commended Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) for introducing the Endocrine Disruption Prevention Act of 2009 (H.R. 4190; S. 2828). The bill, endorsed by the Society, amends the Public Health Service Act by authorizing the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to conduct a research program on endocrine disruption aimed at preventing and reducing the production of and the public’s exposure to harmful chemicals.
The legislation reflects the findings and recommendations of The Endocrine Society’s peer-reviewed Scientific Statement (http://www.endo-society.org/journals/scientificstatements/) on endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) released by the Society this past June. The Scientific Statement presents evidence that endocrine disruptors—substances that interfere with hormone biosynthesis, metabolism or action—impact health resulting in adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological and immune effects in both humans and wildlife. (more…)
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Hidden Threat: Elevated Pollution Levels Near Regional Airports
Smaller regional airports may pose a bigger air pollution threat than previously thought. (Wikimedia Commons)
Scientists are reporting evidence that air pollution — a well-recognized problem at major airports — may pose an important but largely overlooked health concern for people living near smaller regional airports. Those airports are becoming an increasingly important component of global air transport systems. The study, one of only a handful to examine airborne pollutants near regional airports, suggests that officials should pay closer attention to these overlooked emissions, which could cause health problems for local residents. It appears online in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.
In the new study, Suzanne Paulson and colleagues note that scientists have known for years that aircraft emissions from fuel burned during takeoffs and landings can have a serious impact on air quality near major airports. Aircraft exhaust includes pollutants linked to a variety of health problems. However, researchers know little about the impact of such emissions at general aviation or regional airports, which tend to be located closer to residential neighborhoods than major airports, the article notes. (more…)
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An Inexpensive ‘Dipstick’ Test for Pesticides in Foods
An experimental test strip shows a visible color change indicating the presence of pesticides in a test sample. In the future, similar strips may help detect these hidden toxins in foods and beverages. (The American Chemical Society)
Scientists in Canada are reporting the development of a fast, inexpensive “dipstick” test to identify small amounts of pesticides that may exist in foods and beverages. Their paper-strip test is more practical than conventional pesticide tests, producing results in minutes rather than hours by means of an easy-to-read color-change, they say.
The study is in the November 1 issue of ACS’ Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal. John Brennan and colleagues note in the new study that conventional tests for detecting pesticides tend to use expensive and complex equipment and in some cases can take several hours to produce results. They cite a growing need for cheaper, more convenient, and more eco-friendly tests for pesticides, particularly in the food industry.
The scientists describe the development of a new paper-based test strip that changes color shades depending on the amount of pesticide present. In laboratory studies using food and beverage samples intentionally contaminated with common pesticides, the test strips accurately identified minute amounts of pesticides. The test strips, which produced results in less than 5 minutes, could be particularly useful in developing countries or remote areas that may lack access to expensive testing equipment and electricity, they note.
Download full text article http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/ac901714h
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Common Plants Can Eliminate Indoor Air Pollutants
Hemigraphis alternata, or purple waffle plant, one of the highest rated ornamentals for removing indoor air pollutants. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Stanley Kays)
Air quality in homes, offices, and other indoor spaces is becoming a major health concern, particularly in developed countries where people often spend more than 90% of their time indoors. Surprisingly, indoor air has been reported to be as much as 12 times more polluted than outdoor air in some areas. Indoor air pollutants emanate from paints, varnishes, adhesives, furnishings, clothing, solvents, building materials, and even tap water. A long list of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs [including benzene, xylene, hexane, heptane, octane, decane, trichloroethylene (TCE), and methylene chloride], have been shown to cause illnesses in people who are exposed to the compounds in indoor spaces. Acute illnesses like asthma and nausea and chronic diseases including cancer, neurologic, reproductive, developmental, and respiratory disorders are all linked to exposure to VOCs. Harmful indoor pollutants represent a serious health problem that is responsible for more than 1.6 million deaths each year, according to a 2002 World Health Organization report.
Stanley J. Kays, Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, was the lead researcher of a study published in HortScience that tested ornamental indoor plants for their ability to remove harmful VOCs from indoor air. According to Kays, some indoor plants have the ability to effectively remove harmful VOCs from the air, and not only have the ability to improve our physical health, but also have been shown to enhance our psychological health. Adding these plants to indoor spaces can reduce stress, increase task performance, and reduce symptoms of ill health. (more…)
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Searching for the Green Parking Lot
Paved parking lots and driveways make our lives easier, but they often create an easy pathway for pollutants to reach underground water sources and alter the natural flow of water back into the ground. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a study that will investigate ways to reduce pollution that can run off paved surfaces and improve how water filters back into the ground. EPA is testing a variety of different permeable pavement materials and rain gardens in the parking lot at the agency’s Edison, N.J. facility, which houses offices and its laboratory. Most major sources of pollution going into our waterways are well-controlled, but pollution runoff from hard surfaces remains a complicated problem.
“Runoff from parking lots and driveways is a significant source of water pollution in the United States and puts undo stress on our water infrastructure, especially in densely-populated urban areas,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “By evaluating different designs and materials, this study will help us develop strategies to lessen the environmental impacts of parking lots across the country and make our communities more sustainable.” (more…)
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Researchers Make Key Step Towards Turning Methane Gas Into Liquid Fuel
UW chemistry professor Karen Goldberg. (UW)
Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have taken an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, potentially making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals.
Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is plentiful and is an attractive fuel and raw material for chemicals because it is more efficient than oil, produces less pollution and could serve as a practical substitute for petroleum-based fuels until renewable fuels are widely useable and available.
However, methane is difficult and costly to transport because it remains a gas at temperatures and pressures typical on the Earth’s surface.
Now UNC and UW scientists have moved closer to devising a way to convert methane to methanol or other liquids that can easily be transported, especially from the remote sites where methane is often found. The finding is published in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Science. (more…)
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Glacial Melting May Release Pollutants in the Environment
Pollutants from melting glaciers may help explain an increase in persistent organic pollutants in certain lakes since the 1990s, despite decreased used of pesticides. (Wikimedia Commons)
Those pristine-looking Alpine glaciers now melting as global warming sets in may explain the mysterious increase in persistent organic pollutants in sediment from certain lakes since the 1990s, despite decreased use of those compounds in pesticides, electric equipment, paints and other products. That’s the conclusion of a new study, scheduled for the Nov. 1 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.
In the study, Christian Bogdal and colleagues focused on organic pollutants in sediment from a model body of water –– glacier-fed Lake Oberaar in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland –– testing for the persistent organic pollutants, including dioxins, PCBs, organochlorine pesticides and synthetic musk fragrances. They found that while contamination decreased to low levels in the 1980s and 1990s due to tougher regulations and improvements in products, since the late 1990s flow of all of these pollutants into the lake has increased sharply. Currently, the flow of organochlorines into the lake is similar to or even higher than in the 1960s and 1970s, the report states. (more…)
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Sniffing Out Chemical & Biological Threats - A New Approach For Removing Pollutants?
Dr. Hai Xiao of Missouri University of Science and Technology
Research to develop a new method to detect biological and chemical threats may also lead to new approaches for removing pollutants from the environment.
The research effort, led by Dr. Hai Xiao of Missouri University of Science and Technology, involves the development of tiny sensors – each about the size of a pinhead – that could be used to detect and identify chemical or biological agents. Xiao, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, along with colleagues from Missouri S&T and the University of Cincinnati are using a porous crystal known as zeolite to develop the sensors.
Zeolite’s molecular structure and unusual properties allow it to detect certain chemicals and trap them, Xiao says.
Funded through a $529,160 grant from the U.S. Army’s Leonard Wood Institute, the researchers are developing prototypes of the sensors, a process for manufacturing them and a means for deploying them in a battlefield or urban warfare situation. (more…)
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Developing Enzymes to Clean Up Pollution by Explosives
Dr Gideon Grogan, York Structural Biology Laboratory
Scientists at the University of York have uncovered the structure of an unusual enzyme which can be used to reverse the contamination of land by explosives.
The discovery, by scientists in the York Structural Biology Laboratory and the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, will support the development of plants that can help tackle pollution caused by royal demolition explosive, also known as RDX.
Researchers at York have identified bacteria that use RDX as a food source and used that knowledge to develop transgenic plants that can draw pollutants out of the soil and break them down.
The latest findings, published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, focus on the XplA enzyme which plays an important role in that process.
Dr Gideon Grogan, from the York Structural Biology Laboratory, said: “The biological process for tackling the pollution caused by RDX already exists but we need to find ways of making it work faster and on the scale required. (more…)
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Are Common Pills and Plastics Feminizing Fish, Endangering People?
From left, John McLachlan, director of the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research; Douglas Meffert, deputy director; and Charles Allen III, assistant director. (Photo by David Maag)
Synthetic and natural hormones from plastics, pesticides and even common prescription drugs are seeping into rivers and streams and having unintended consequences on wildlife, causing some male fish to become feminized and lay eggs. In fact, a recent report found that one third of small mouth bass were feminized in nine major U.S. river basins, and almost all of the rivers and streams tested in the United States contained some hormonally active chemicals.
The long-term consequences of hormones and endocrine disruptors in the environment will be the focus of the Tenth International Symposium on Environment and Hormones (E.hormone 2009), a four-day conference starting Oct. 21 at Tulane University that will bring together leading experts from around the world to talk about the latest research in this emerging field.
“It is one of the hottest topics in environmental biology right now,” says John McLachlan, director of the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, which is hosting the conference. “The biological activity of these compounds both in terms of other species and, potentially, ourselves is something that scientists are becoming more and more aware of through research.” (more…)
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Researchers Reveal Key to How Bacteria Clear Mercury Pollution
Mercury is a dangerous toxin that has become widespread throughout our environment. Coal-fired power plants, waste incinerators, chlor-alkali plants, and other U.S. sources dump 150 tons of mercury per year into our air. (Senator Patrick Leahy)
Mercury pollution is a persistent problem in the environment. Human activity has lead to increasingly large accumulations of the toxic chemical, especially in waterways, where fish and shellfish tend to act as sponges for the heavy metal.
It’s that persistent and toxic nature that has flummoxed scientists for years in the quest to find ways to mitigate the dangers posed by the buildup of mercury in its most toxic form, methylmercury.
A new discovery by scientists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, however, has shed new light on one of nature’s best mercury fighters: bacteria.
“Mercury pollution is a significant environmental problem,” said Jeremy Smith, a UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair and lead author of the new study. “That’s especially true for organisms at or near the top of the food chain, such as fish, shellfish, and ultimately, humans. But some bacteria seem to know how to break down the worst forms of it. Understanding how they do this is valuable information.” (more…)
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Air Pollutants From Abroad a Growing Concern, Says New Report
An elevated view of one of Linfen's main streets. Linfen, China has been named by some organizations as the dirtiest city in the world. (Sheila/CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic)
Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents — from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe — and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council. Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries.
“Air pollution does not recognize national borders; the atmosphere connects distant regions of our planet,” said Charles Kolb, chair of the committee that wrote the report and president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research Inc. “Emissions within any one country can affect human and ecosystem health in countries far downwind. While it is difficult to quantify these influences, in some cases the impacts are significant from regulatory and public health perspectives.” (more…)
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New Research: The Impact of Regional Aerosols in China
Zhanging Li is a professor in the University of Maryland's Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (CMPS).
Moisture-laden clouds frequently gather over the heavy industrial regions of southeastern China, yet little rainfall is recorded there. A University of Maryland scientist, working with climate experts from NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered one reason may be in a component of those clouds: aerosols.
A heavy concentration of aerosols — tiny airborne particles of soot, dust, sulfuric acid and organic matter — can affect rainfall, air quality and the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface, according to the researchers. Their initial findings from a seven-month study are featured in an article published this week (Sept. 24) in Nature magazine.
“To better understand the impact of aerosols in China is to better understand climate change worldwide,” says Zhanqing Li, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic science (CMPS) at Maryland and lead investigator of the project. (more…)
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Invention Busts Dust Toxins and Contamination
“Dust Alert” exposes dangerous invisible pollution, pollen and construction waste
Worried that dust from a nearby construction zone will harm your family’s health? A new Tel Aviv University tool could either confirm your suspicions or better yet, set your mind at rest.
Prof. Eyal Ben-Dor and his Ph.D. student Dr. Sandra Chudnovsky, of TAU’s Department of Geography have developed a sensor called “Dust Alert” — the first of its kind — to help families and authorities monitor the quality of the air they breathe. Like an ozone gas or carbon monoxide meter, it measures the concentration of small particles that may contaminate the air in your home. Scientific studies on “Dust Alert” appeared recently in the journal Science of the Total Environment, Urban Air Pollution: Problems, Control Technologies and Management Practices.
“It works just like an ozone meter would,” says Prof. Ben-Dor. “You put it in your home or office for three weeks, and it can give you real-time contamination levels in terms of dust, pollen and toxins.” Functioning like a tiny chemistry lab, the device can precisely determine the chemical composition of the toxins, so homeowners, office managers and factories can act to improve air quality. (more…)
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‘Green Clean:’ Researchers Determining Natural Ways To Clean Contaminated Soil
by Caroline Barnhill
March 2006: The Coast Guard site before trees were planted.
Researchers at North Carolina State University are working to demonstrate that trees can be used to degrade or capture fuels that leak into soil and ground water. Through a process called phytoremediation – literally a “green” technology – plants and trees remove pollutants from the environment or render them harmless.
Through a partnership with state and federal government agencies, the military and industry, Dr. Elizabeth Nichols, environmental technology professor in NC State’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, and her team are using phytoremediation to clean up a contaminated site in Elizabeth City, N.C.
Phytoremediation uses plants to absorb heavy metals from the soil into their roots. The process is an attractive alternative to the standard clean-up methods currently used, which are very expensive and energy intensive. At appropriate sites, phytoremediation can be a cost-effective and sustainable technology, Nichols says. (more…)
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Researchers Prove Lingering Effects from the Exxon Valdez Oil Catastrophe
PAH pollutants were blamed for the continuing degradation of the ecosystem off the coast of Alaska. Then a dispute erupted over the origins of these pollutants in science. Now, according to an international team of researchers, the crude oil from the Exxon Valdez 1989 is still the main source of the contaminants. (Photo by E. Gundlach)
Contaminants from natural coal deposits in the Gulf of Alaska are not easily bioavailable, unlike the crude oil from the Exxon Valdez tanker catastrophe. This clearly disproves the theory that natural coal deposits were the cause of observed environmental damage. PAH pollutants were blamed for the continuing degradation of the ecosystem off the coast of Alaska. Then a dispute erupted over the origins of these pollutants in science. According to an international team of researchers writing in specialist journal Environmental Science & Technology, the crude oil from the Exxon Valdez was the main source of the bioavailable PAH contaminants.
The scientists from Tennessee Technological University, the University of Lausanne, Calvin College and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) compared polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in samples of tanker oil and from coal deposits. Their investigation with bacterial biosensors has now shown that only the PAHs from the tanker oil had any effect on organisms. (more…)
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Scientists Find ‘Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch’
SEAPLEX researchers spotted a large net tangled with plastic in the "garbage patch." (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Scientists have just completed an unprecedented journey into the vast and little-explored “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.”
On the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX), researchers got the first detailed view of plastic debris floating in a remote ocean region.
It wasn’t a pretty sight.
The Scripps research vessel (R/V) New Horizon left its San Diego homeport on August 2, 2009, for the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, located some 1,000 miles off California’s coast, and returned on August 21, 2009.
Scientists surveyed plastic distribution and abundance, taking samples for analysis in the lab and assessing the impacts of debris on marine life.
Before this research, little was known about the size of the “garbage patch” and the threats it poses to marine life and the gyre’s biological environment. (more…)
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Tunnels Concentrate Air Pollution By Up To 1000 Times
The M5 East tunnel in Sydney.
A toxic cocktail of ultrafine particles is lurking inside road tunnels in concentration levels so high they have the potential to harm drivers and passengers, a new study has found.
The study, which has been published in Atmospheric Environment, measured ultrafine particle concentration levels outside a vehicle travelling through the M5 East tunnel in Sydney.
Study co-author and director of Queensland University of Technology’s International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Professor Lidia Morawska, said road tunnels were locations where maximum exposure to dangerous ultrafine particles in addition to other pollutants occurred.
“The human health effects of exposure to ultrafine particles produced by fuel combustion are generally regarded as detrimental,” Professor Morawska said. (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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Pollution in Eastern China Cuts Light, Useful Rainfall
Rain in eastern China — where most of the country's people and pollution exist — is not like it used to be.
New research shows that air pollution in eastern China has reduced the amount of light rainfall over the past 50 years and decreased by 23 percent the number of days of light rain in the eastern half of the country. The results suggest that bad air quality might be affecting the country’s ability to raise crops as well as contributing to health and environmental problems.
The study links for the first time high levels of pollutants in the air with conditions that prevent the light kind of rainfall critical for agriculture. Led by atmospheric scientist Yun Qian at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the study appears August 15 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres.
“People have long wondered if there was a connection, but this is the first time we’ve observed it from long-term data,” said Qian. “Besides the health effects, acid rain and other problems that pollution creates, this work suggests that reducing air pollution might help ease the drought in north China.” (more…)
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Sulfate Lens Enhances Climate Warming Properties of Atmospheric Soot
Sunlight driven chemical reactions over Riverside, California, give suspended soot a lens-like coating that enhances its atmospheric warming effect. (Photo by arneheijenga via Flickr, creative commons share-alike license)
Particulate pollution thought to be holding climate change in check by reflecting sunlight instead enhances warming when combined with airborne soot, a new study by researchers at the UC San Diego has found.
Like a black car on a bright summer day, soot absorbs solar energy. Recent atmospheric models have ranked soot, also called black carbon, second only to carbon dioxide in potential for atmospheric warming. But particles, or aerosols, such as soot mix with other chemicals in the atmosphere, complicating estimates of their role in changing climate. (more…)
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Technology is Key for Biofuel Success
A biofuel power station in Jordbro, Sweden. (Stefan Jansson)
To make the conversion of biomass to biofuels more cost-effective, new technologies are essential, according to Dr. Richard Hess from the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls in the US and his team. Their cost-analysis1 of the steps involved in the corn stover* supply chain is published in Springer’s journal Cellulose, in a special issue dedicated to technological advancements in the conversion of corn stover to biofuels.
The United States is increasing the use of lignocellulosic biomass, of which corn stover is a substantial source, as part of its portfolio of solutions to address climate change issues and improve energy security. As biorefining conversion technologies become commercial, major barriers to the availability of corn stover for biorefining are emerging, including feedstock availability, supply system logistics and characteristics of the biomass material itself. These barriers challenge the cost-effectiveness of current feedstock logistics systems. (more…)
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Clean Fuels Could Reduce Deaths from Ship Smokestacks by 40,000 Annually
Clean fuels with lower sulfur levels could reduce deaths from ship smokestack emissions by 40,000 annually, scientists say. (Wikipedia Commons)
Rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012 — almost one-third higher than previously believed, according to the second major study on that topic. The study says that government action to reduce sulfur emissions from shipping fuel (the source of air pollution linked to an increased risk of illness and death) could reduce that toll. The study is in the current issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly publication.
James Winebrake and colleagues note that most oceangoing ships burn fuels with a high sulfur content that averages 2.4 percent. Their smokestacks emit sulfur-containing particles linked to increased risks of lung and heart disease. A 2007 study by the researchers estimated that about 60,000 people died prematurely around the world due to shipping-related emissions in 2002. The new study estimates that the toll could rise to 87,000 by 2012, assuming that the global shipping industry rebounds from the current economic slump and no new regulation occurs. (more…)
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