All posts tagged: Carbon

Scientists turn carbon dioxide into renewable methane using microbes

Scientists turn carbon dioxide into renewable methane using microbes

Published by Jenni Sidey

As wind turbines spin and solar panels soak up sunlight, one major problem continues to shadow the clean energy transition: storing energy for long periods of time. Batteries can help for hours or even days, but seasonal storage remains far more difficult. Researchers at Penn State now believe tiny microbes could help solve part of that challenge. An international team led by Bruce Logan, director of Penn State’s Institute of Energy and the Environment, has developed a larger and more efficient reactor that converts carbon dioxide and renewable electricity into methane, the main component of natural gas. Their findings show that microbial electrosynthesis systems can scale up dramatically without losing performance. The work offers a possible pathway for storing renewable energy in chemical form while reusing carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. A graphical abstract of the study. (CREDIT: Water Research) “Traditionally, large-scale, long-term storage means pumping water uphill and letting it flow back down through turbines,” Logan said. “If you’re talking seasonal storage, you really need to put that energy into a …

Reusable brick walls could slash construction carbon emissions by 60%

Reusable brick walls could slash construction carbon emissions by 60%

Published by Jenni Sidey

Brick construction creates lasting materials but often ends in waste when buildings are torn down early. Engineers in Austria built reusable brick walls that can be dismantled and rebuilt, cutting emissions and debris while suggesting a different future for buildings. Construction sites often begin with new materials and end with massive piles of waste. Across the world, buildings are demolished long before the materials inside them wear out. Brick walls that could last for generations are frequently crushed and discarded after only a few decades of use. Researchers at Graz University of Technology believe that cycle needs to change. Working with Austrian brick producer wienerberger, the team has developed reusable brick wall systems designed to survive beyond the life of a single building. Instead of binding bricks together permanently with mortar, the researchers created industrially prefabricated wall elements connected through reversible joints. The walls can later be dismantled without destroying the materials, then rebuilt at another site. The project, called Re-Use Ziegelwand, could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and construction waste while giving buildings a …

Reeves allies unleash on Miliband in battle for Britain’s Treasury – POLITICO

Reeves allies unleash on Miliband in battle for Britain’s Treasury – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The MP stressed that given both Burnham and the other main leadership contender, Wes Streeting, have signed up to Reeves’ fiscal rules it “doesn’t leave much margin for significant change anyway.” “The bond markets kind of make her bomb-proof,” another Labour MP argued, praising the incumbent chancellor’s record for steadying the economy in turbulent times. “The big clash between Rachel and Ed is over the North Sea,” this person added, referring to the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields whose licenses have been stymied by legal challenges. Reeves is seen as being in favor of their expansion, while Miliband puts more emphasis on the climate trade-offs. “So there’s a big fault line there. No wonder he wants her out of the way.” Another backbencher said they believed Miliband — who has made no public comment on whether he would want the job and remains in Starmer’s cabinet — would prevent “any meaningful welfare reform.” “Reverting back to a 2010-15 economic policy hymn-sheet” — the years when Miliband led the Labour Party to electoral defeat …

Even insiders don’t know what Burnham has planned for Britain – POLITICO

Even insiders don’t know what Burnham has planned for Britain – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

A fourth person who has worked with Burnham said that might be a plus when it comes to winning the next general election against the insurgent Reform Party. “I know it’s a banal thing, but we’ve not had a northern prime minister for a really long time, unless you count Rishi Sunak,” this person said. (Sunak represented a leafy Yorkshire constituency but is from the south of England.) “It does matter, because every weekend conversation … will be migration, housing, cost of living, dirty high streets, antisocial behaviour. Great — we win on those, we win the country.” The first person who has worked with Burnham said it is deeper than raw electoral politics. This person said Burnham sees many policy issues through two main lenses — rewiring the economy and bringing communities together. As such, he is not totally off the world stage. As mayor, he has carved out time in his diary to see diplomats — in part because Manchester has the most consulates of any English city apart from London. And he …

Microsoft’s carbon removal plans aren’t dead after all

Microsoft’s carbon removal plans aren’t dead after all

Published by skeptic

Microsoft is purchasing 650,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from startup BioCirc, the company said today.  As carbon removal deals go, it’s not a big buy. But this one is notable because last month, two reports said the tech giant was pausing its carbon removal deals. BioCirc confirmed for TechCrunch that the purchase agreement was signed in May, weeks after Microsoft reportedly paused new deals. For the carbon removal industry — and the startups that depend on it — there’s a big difference between a pause and a recalibration. Microsoft is reportedly responsible for more than 90% of the carbon removal credit market, meaning its purchasing decisions alone can determine whether young companies in the space survive. Microsoft repeatedly denied that it had paused its carbon removal purchases. “Our carbon removal program has not ended,” Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer at Microsoft, told TechCrunch in a statement. “At times we may adjust the pace or volume of our carbon removal procurement as we continue to refine our approach toward sustainability goals.” The new deal …

First test of CO2 removal with green sand finds no harm to marine life

First test of CO2 removal with green sand finds no harm to marine life

Published by skeptic

A beach in Southampton, New York, treated with olivine sand Chayenne Moreau The first trial to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide by adding crushed olivine to the ocean had no adverse effects on the seafloor ecosystem in its first year. While the results of the trial in New York state are promising for this carbon-removal technique, researcherss warn they may not have captured all potential negative impacts. The addition of olivine to the ocean should still be carefully regulated, “but there might be ways that it could work and have a minimal effect”, says Emilia Jankowska at the non-profit group Hourglass Climate, who led the study. The United Nations climate body has said the world will need carbon removal methods, which range from planting trees to filtering out CO2 from the air with giant machines, to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. As emissions continue to rise and the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels slips out of reach, many hope these technologies could someday help cool the planet back down. Olivine, or …

Will burying dead trees after a wildfire keep their carbon locked up?

Will burying dead trees after a wildfire keep their carbon locked up?

Published by skeptic

Charred trees still standing after a wildfire in Glacier National Park, Montana Gorski/NurPhoto/Shutters​tock In 2021, a smouldering underground coal seam ignited the tinder-dry grass and brush in Poverty Flats, Montana, setting off a wildfire that burned 267 square kilometres. The blaze killed 50,000 trees, mostly ponderosa pines, that had shaded cattle grazing on the Gentry Ranch. Black, partially burnt snags stood across a moonscape of charred earth. These “widowmakers” could have unpredictably toppled onto workers or cows, or fuelled the next wildfire. Standard practice would have been to burn the trees in piles, emitting almost 7000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Instead, bulldozers and logging machines with giant claws dumped the trees into a 5000-square-metre pit and covered them over with 6 meters of soil and gravel and a polypropylene fabric. The company running the operation, Mast Reforestation, says this way the trees won’t decompose for centuries, preventing more global warming and making another fire less likely. Mast can also sell carbon credits to pay for planting new trees. “By no means do we consider this …

Arctic fires are releasing carbon stored for thousands of years

Arctic fires are releasing carbon stored for thousands of years

Published by skeptic

A wildfire rips through the boreal forest in Manitoba, Canada, in 2025 Anadolu via Getty Images The wildfires that have been raging in many places around the Arctic in recent years could be contributing much more to global warming than currently thought. It has been assumed that what’s burning is mostly recent plant growth, but a study of soil cores from around the Arctic and boreal regions has shown that these fires are igniting stored carbon that is up to 5000 years old. “Soil combustion could unlock long-stored carbon from soils that have been considered previously as carbon sinks,” says Meri Ruppel at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki. Currently, climate models don’t take the release of this ancient carbon into account. Plants grow slowly in the cold conditions of the Arctic, but their remains can accumulate in soil in forms such as peat, building up over centuries and millennia. This means soils in the Arctic and in the boreal forests nearby have been acting as a carbon sink – that is, helping to remove …

Carbon credits are flawed, but they can still help save forests

Carbon credits are flawed, but they can still help save forests

Published by skeptic

A logging yard in the Amazon rainforest Tarcisio Schnaider/Getty Images In 1986, an energy CEO heard a briefing about climate change and felt guilty that his company was building a coal-fired power plant in Connecticut. The company eventually paid to plant trees for timber in Guatemala so farmers would stop cutting down intact forest, in theory compensating for the coal plant’s carbon emissions. The idea would develop into markets that allow companies to offset their emissions by buying “voluntary” carbon credits that help avoid deforestation, among other measures. Advocates say land users should be paid to leave a forest standing. Critics say maybe the land users weren’t going to cut down the forest anyway. So who’s right? Both, according to a growing body of research. Last month, one of the most rigorous studies yet found that most early projects did successfully reduce deforestation. But they sold credits for almost 11 times more forest on average than they actually saved. Historically, forests have absorbed about half of humanity’s fossil fuel emissions, and tropical forests are particularly …

Callaway’s new golf driver face combines titanium, carbon fiber, and a military-grade polymer found in an unlikely way

Callaway’s new golf driver face combines titanium, carbon fiber, and a military-grade polymer found in an unlikely way

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sign Up For Goods 🛍️ Product news, reviews, and must-have deals. Golf driver faces have been almost exclusively titanium for more than three decades, with some detours into carbon fiber. Callaway tried one of those detours itself with the all-composite C4 in the early 2000s. Its new Quantum drivers take a different approach to the problem: keep the titanium, add the carbon, and bond the two with a polymer the company describes as “military-grade.” The layered build, which Callaway is calling the Tri-Force Face, debuts across all five of its flagship Quantum driver heads this season. The titanium-carbon trade-off It’s a slick-looking face. Callway Titanium has been the industry standard for driver faces for years and for good reason. At impact, the face has to flex inward and snap back fast enough to launch the ball before contact ends. Golf’s governing agency, the USGA, caps how long the ball can stay on the face using a measurement called Characteristic Time, or CT. It’s one of the biggest technical constraints that keeps drivers in check for …