Carbon Sequestration part II

Overall summary:

There are many ideas for sequestering carbon, these include storing it in geological formations, pumping it into the ocean (liquid CO2 is denser than water), injecting it into the seabed, transforming it into thermodynamically stable minerals, or doing an ‘active earth intervention’ such as iron fertilization.  Dr. Watson talked us through the pros and cons of these methods, their viability, and his opinion.    Dr. Watson’s message was similar to Dr. Katz’s – the earth will survive a very high amount of atmospheric carbon, but it’s doubtful that the current number of  humans can.

Terms

• Iron Fertilization-  Spreading iron into the ocean to increase the population of phytoplankton Phytoplankton blooms remove CO2 through photosynthesis. This has been tried on the small scale, but like any ‘active earth intervention’ or ‘geoengineering attempt’, people are reluctant to try to actively change the environment dramatically to correct for how we already dramatically changed the environment. Prevention seems like a safer approach. Nonetheless we may eventually need this type of interaction. Other ideas such as using space mirrors to reflect sunlight or putting an anti-greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have also been proposed
• Acidification-   Increased CO2 levels in the ocean will increase the level of acidity, possibly harming wildlife.  Much aquatic life relies on CaCO3 (mollusks, coral, etc.) and higher acidity dissolves this. 
• GeologicalCO2 injection-  Injecting CO2 into areas below the earth, sequestering the CO2 into the pockets vacated by oil drilling. (Long Term Storage)
• Sub-Oceanic Sequestering- Pumping liquid CO2 to the bottom of the ocean, where it will settle to the bottom and stay in relative storage, like a giant lake. There are concerns about this because of ocean acidification, and stability of these giant lakes of CO2
• Sub-sediment storage – pump CO2 below seafloor making CO2 hydrate.    This seems likely to have the least environmental impact, but issues come up such as who owns the ocean, who funds this, can we really know the long term environmental impact?
• Geothermal gradient  - the temperature of the earth increases dramatically as we go down through the crust. The center of the earth is as hot as the surface of the sun.  At high pressure CO2 is liquid

Eco and Gov

• There are economic costs to all of these solutions, but almost no short term return.
• This is an international problem, so it’s not easy to assign or accept responsibility – fiscally or otherwise
• To be successful, there needs to be huge government initiative and funding. 
• Reusing spent oil wells to pump the liquid CO2 into deep cavities

Connections

• Mimi Katz-Environmental
• Dr. Borton-solar

• Dr. Borton-Environmental

SEM

As part of your HW due Wednesday 2/10, post a comment here. The comment should be a link to the coolest SEM picture you can find online.

Be sure to include: Your name and a description of what we are looking at. No duplicates!

Carbon Sequestration - One of two student blogs

Carbon Capture

Dr. Watson
Earth and Environmental Science

1/22

For millennia, the earth  atmospheric  carbon has naturally cycled from 180 to 280 ppm. Right now it is beyond 380 ppm.  Carbon dioxide is 84.8 percent of all emissions.  We release so much that we measure it in teragrams. (10 to the 12th power)  Natural sources of carbon dioxide are forest fires and volcanoes. Other sources include fossil fuels, non-energy fuel use, iron and steel production, cement manufacture, natural gas systems, municipal solid waste consumption, petroleum, coal, etc. Electricity generation works mainly with coal, while petroleum is used for transportation and is used the most.  These are isotopically different than fossil fuels, so we can tell the source of carbon in the atmosphere.

Carbon Dioxide can be  captured by pulling it out of the atmosphere. This is not currently regarded as practical or economical CO2 can be captured or reduced by power plants and industrial facilities at the “point source”. Three approaches to do so are post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture, and oxy-fuel combustion capture. Once captured, pure carbon dioxide can be stored geologically, in oceans, or through mineralization.

Terms:

• Geologic storage: place carbon dioxide into empty oil and gas wells
• Ocean storage: Large capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, but changes pH of ocean
• Mineral carbonation: make solid carbonates by essentially reversing the process used to make cement. CaO (lime) or MgO + CO2 à CaCO3 or MgCO3 + heat.  This is exothermic, so once started, the reaction should continue, but it’s hard to drive the reaction to completion.  Researchers are working to make this process efficient and successful.
• Post-combustion capture: waste gas is scrubbed of carbon dioxide
• Pre-combustion capture: fossil fuels oxidized in gasifier, take CO2 out and then burn the fuel in hydrogen. This is complex chemistry and currently expensive
• Oxy-fuel combustion capture: burned with oxygen rather than air so that the waste stream is pure CO2  which is easier to capture and store.
• Carbon carousel: a device with fiber mats that rotae and pull CO2 out of the air, making bicarbonate. The bicarbonate can then be made into a solid as benign as sodium bicarbonate.  Right now this is just a prototype.
• Sequestration:

Connections:

Katz- climate change

Ji- nuclear energy

Borton- solar energy

Wind Energy

Be sure to know what the Production Tax Credit is, why it's important, and how much it is per kwh.

Be sure to be able to label the parts of the wind turbine: http://engineeringyourworld.pbworks.com/f/Wind+turbine+diagram+3.gif 

Wind Technology and Renewable Energy                                                                                                         2/2/16

Overall summary:

Terms and Concepts:

·         

• Wind energy is the most viable, renewable technology in the immediate future. Solar may eventually be, if we could make it more cost effectively.
• ·         Rotor- blades of turbine, made of carbon fiber and a fiberglass ‘skin’, similar to a surf board.
• ·         Vertical vs. horizontal axis turbines – both work, but the traditional horizontal axis is more efficient in terms of costs
• ·         Offshore Wind- best source of wind energy but is opposed by coastal communities and is very expensive to install or repair if necessary
• ·         The “Electric Grid”- first electricity distribution system in NYC set up in a grid pattern
• ·         Smart Grid- technologies for energy storage and demand side management
• ·         Tower
• ·         Machine head
• ·         Gearbox
• ·         Hub
• ·         
• Grid instability is a huge issue with renewables. This continues to be a big problem in Maui. Cost effective electrical energy storage could be very helpful in this. People are trying to improve batteries and make different types of electrical energy storage more cost effective, for example fly wheels.  Demand side management can also help with this.  Think of the grid like a water tank. If less than 60 hz, have a brown out – causing machines and electronics to run slowly, overheat, and burn up.
• ·         Grid capacitance -  the wires in the grid itself hold some electrical energy that  gets quickly, but not immediately drained when power goes down.

Economics:

• ·         PTC (production tax credit)- limiting factor for the growth of wind power – about 1.5 to 2 cents per kwh.  Without this subsidy, it’s hard for wind to compete with coal and natural gas, which cost only about 4 cents/kwh to produce (sell to consumers for about 12 cents/kwh). When Congress has to renew this yearly instead of enacting it for a longer period of time, the industry becomes unstable. (Suppliers and customers are afraid it won’t be renewed and will no longer be a dependable source of revenue.)
• ·         As turbine size increases, the cost of its energy decreases (economies of scale)
• ·         Building more towers in one location is more cost effective (spreads out overhead costs and installation costs)
• ·         Cost benefit of using 3 bladed turbines as opposed to more blades
• ·         Vertical axis turbines are cheaper to install but have lower output (cost tradeoff)
• ·         Almost none of the GE wind turbine is manufactured in US. They even by generators from China.

Connections:

·      

   Dr. Borton spoke about the viability of solar energy, another renewable source

·         Previous presentations on climate change showed that alternative energy such as wind will become necessary

·         Gearing  and Lego project 

Carbon Sequestration

I'm still missing two blogs for this :-(

Be sure to think about:

• ** Tera and other metric prefixes
• carbon capture
• *** carbon sequestration
• geological formation
• ocean
• seabed
• transform to minerals
• iron fertilization
• ***active intervention
• iron fertilization
• mirrors in space
• anti greenhouse gas in air
• geological storage
• mineral carbonation
• storage in ocean
• isotopes from volcano different than from fossil fuel
• ***3 ways to reduce carbon at point sources
• carbon carousel
• **reversal of cement making process
• voxels - relate to Mr. Dehnert
• How to read a phase diagram
• CO2 hydrate
• ***ophiolites and their use

Multi Body Dynamics

No blog was assigned.

Be sure to think about:

• * Social value of mathematical modeling
• * role of chaos in mathematical modeling
• degrees of freedom (connection to robot arm in MILL)
• Cray decade
• * fly by wire
• * what it means to be meta stable
• * definition of "inverse problem"
• * n as dynamic degrees of freedom; m as number of constraints and what these variables do to the complexity of a problem
• relationship to Dr. Chen (ribosome simulation)
• relationship of Mars Rover to our heart valve project
• RuBisCo
• Custom built antibiotics (relates to Dr. Chen and Dr. Belfort)
• Complex modeling (relates to Dr. Katz)
• * relationship between dynamic equations, numerics, and computer science and the value of different ways of doing math compared to more computing power
• F=ma

Climate Change Impact

Climate Change: Impact

Recently we have seen the effects of climate change in the news. 2015 was the hottest year on record. This astonishing fact should be a wakeup call to our generation. If we do not make a conscious effort to halt the temperature rise, there will be detrimental consequences. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change around the world.

Antarctica- Because of rising temperatures, glaciers are melting. The artic sea ice, during 2015, was recorded to be the lowest on record. Eventually, the west Antarctic ice sheet could be melted. If all of the sea ice melts that means more heat will be absorbed by the planet. Large ice sheets covered in snow reflect up to 85% of sunlight. Dark ocean water only reflects 7%. Therefore, melted ice (water) absorbs more heat and continues to melt even more ice because surface temperatures increase. This also raises sea levels.

Permafrost- Rising temperatures are also causing frozen ground in the arctic to thaw. This thawing is releasing carbon dioxide and methane gas from the ground. These gases add to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and cause more warming which causes more melting.

Plant and Animal Ranges:  We are seeing shifts in the ranges of plants and animals, with species moving farther north and growing seasons increasing in areas farther away from the equator. Unfortunately, this also means that historically fertile areas in the southern part of the northern hemisphere are becoming too hot and dry to sustain the large quantities of food they have typically produced. The longer growing seasons near the poles are not enough to mitigate this.

Social Impact: Future America- As the climate continues to change the United States can expect to get no snow starting sometime between the years of 2041-2070. Less snowpack will mean a lower water supply because there will not be any snow melting into fresh water sources. However, sea levels will continue to rise, and will rise more than 1.2 meters by 2100. There will be more plant and animal range shifts which will affect ecosystems. Birds will fly farther north and growing seasons will be longer. All of these factors will affect population, resources, ecosystems, etc.

Government and Economics- Future impacts of climate change will depend on if we take action or not. Our generation must decide whether we are going to elect people that believe in preserving the environment we have now or people who are willing to “adapt” rather than take “corrective” action. Politicians will need to look for an incentive to get people to change their lifestyle. It is difficult to address climate change when the impact is perceived to be in the distant future and when the challenge requires global cooperation.

The economic costs of climate change are already believed to be taking place with storms becoming larger and moving into areas that are not historically impacted, so are not well prepared.  As fertile areas become too hot to produce enough food, scarcity becomes an issue. As the earth warms, fresh water becomes less available increasing competition for water sources.  While some areas will benefit from climate change (for example, northern Canada when shipping lanes open up due to ice melt) other areas are expected to take a large economic hit.

Vocabulary-

Permafrost: layer of frozen soil in Polar Regions

Insolation: solar radiation (energy) from the sun that reaches the earth’s surface

Orbital climate forcing: cyclic variations in earth’s orbit that affect climate

Anthropogenic: because of human activity

Methane hydrate: methane trapped in ice

Be able to read about climate change and see if the evidence provided is of high quality or not. For example: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/10/12/a-case-against-climate-change-alarmism/#3845f9ad61fd 

Evidence of Climate Change

Climate Change - EVIDENCE

Dr. Katz (Earth and Environmental Science, RPI)

01/20/16

Dr. Katz gave a lecture explaining to the class the evidence behind why climate change is happening along with the possible future impacts. Different types of evidence, gathered all around the world, showed a similar trend. The evidence included graphs showing different types of gasses such as CO2 and CH4, both of which are greenhouse gasses. In the natural cycle of glacial and interglacial periods on earth, the amount of these gasses should be decreasing based on what Dr. Katz showed us based on evidence found in ice cores. This was based on evidence showing the Earth’s climate moving in a cyclical pattern of the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere along with the surface temperature over time. Based on the traditional pattern of the Earth's climate the temperature and amount of greenhouse gasses should be decreasing but instead they are reaching record levels in recent history.

This is very important to society because as the climate changes, it causes multiple aspects of society to change, such as but not limited to: the economy, agriculture, need for new construction and an overall effect on how the government has to spend money in many areas.

For the government, climate changes will affect many departments and agencies on many levels. Including research and development of cleaner and more efficient ways to obtain and use energy. Making sure that the infrastructure can withstand the changes in weather patterns such as stronger storms, also needed to be studied.  Also, the government faces a huge challenge in trying to unite politicians both nationally and internationally in accepting and spending money in response to the potential long term effects of climate change.

As was previously stated in class, the environment is not part of the economy, the economy is part of the environment[D2] . The economy will be affected in many ways due to the fact that many different types of goods and services will be affected by a changing climate. The food industry is being affected greatly with agriculture having to change because farmers have to plant differently due to differences in weather caused by changes in climate.

Greenhouse Gasses - These are gasses that trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere causing the overall temperature of the planet to increase. These gasses include carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor.

CO2- Carbon dioxide, greenhouse gas that was projected to decrease but started to increase around 10,000 years ago when it was believed that there was major deforestation caused by humans. CO2 greatly increased in the mid to late 19th century and has rapidly increased ever since then.

CH4- Methane, greenhouse gas that was projected to decrease until about 5000 years ago when agriculture left the fertile crescent and grew across the continents. This coincides with an increase in rice paddies which produce large amount of methane. It is still increasing today due both methane from livestock, along with a larger amount of agriculture such as rice paddies.

Ice Cores - A large columns of ice that researchers drill to see what the atmosphere was like over time in both the amount of greenhouse gases and temperatures.

 ppm- Parts per Million. The unit used for the amount of a gas in the atmosphere. This is  similar to percent (parts per hundred).

Mauna Loa Observatory -  In mid 20th century in Hawaii the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was recorded and has been researched continuously since then. It was found that the graph of the data was that the PPM of CO2 is increasing exponentially.

Natural Variability - The Earth has an average natural variability of CO2 in the atmosphere based on the previous climate cycles studied from ice cores. The natural variability for CO2 is 180 to 280 ppm. Instead today CO2 is over 400 PPM.

·         Keeling Curve

·         Methane hydrate and idea that top 3 m of  permafrost contain more carbon than in entire atmosphere now

·         Can trace volcanic carbon that is isotopically different from carbon released from fossil fuels

·         El Nino and La Nina don’t explain overall changes we are seeing

·         Satellite evidence of earth’s temperature changes

·         Top 10 hottest years on record occurred since 1998

Connections

Dr. Borton, Using solar energy as a  possible way to reduce the impact of and limit climate change in the future.

Cleanroom, The manufacturing of photovoltaic cells aka “solar cells” use for solar energy as a way to reduce climate change in the future.

**Be able to read about climate change and see if the evidence provided is of high quality or not. If so, be able to list facts that show why you agree. If not, be able to list facts as to why you disagree. For example, what evidence do you have to agree or disagree with the conclusions implied by this chart: http://www.weatherquestions.com/Loehle-2000-yr-proxies.gif** 

Links

Amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and the temperature over time.

• https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/temperature-change.html

Climate Projections

• https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-releases-detailed-global-climate-change-projections

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Fission and Fusion

Name: Dr. Wei Ji

Department: MANE at R.P.I.

Topic: Nuclear Energy

Date:January 19, 2016

Social Value:

Energy is an important part of our daily lives.  It’s how we heat our homes, run our electronic devices, and get from place to place.  Our society relies on fossil fuels for most of our energy, however, eventually these will run out.  We have to start relying on other forms of energy so that we are better prepared for when they run out.  Nuclear energy is a possible solution to this because it is abundant, more cost effective, and doesn’t cause air pollution.  It is impacted socially though by the fear of past nuclear scares like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima.  Because of these, not many people are eager to increase our reliance on nuclear power.

Government Connection:

Energy production is monitored and regulated by the Department of Energy which is part of the federal government. Government policy also has a huge influence on energy development. The government can use subsidies and taxes to strongly influence the type of energy used in the nation. For example a tax on carbon emission would have a huge negatie impact on the economic sustainability of coal and natural gas power plants, making nuclear power seem more financially appealing. Also, the government could ease zoning restrictions and use tax incentives to make way for nuclear power plants.    Energy also correlates with government candidates.  A politician running for office who is pro-environment will get different supporters than someone who is pushing for infrastructure build up.  The government  also affects how much money will go towards energy research and support in the federal budget.  As energy continues to change in what is primarily used, the amount in the budget may also need to change.

Economics Connection:

• Federal Budget Change (as said before)
• Gas prices will increase as the supply decreases (supply and demand)
• Nuclear fuel is more cost effective if used instead of fossil fuels(if start up costs and nuclear waste storage are not included.)

Guest Connections:

• Dr. Borton- alternate energy and economies of scale
• Dr. Katz- climate change and possible solutions

Terms/Concepts:

• Control rods
• Cladding
• Spent fuel
• Reprocessing
• Condenser
• Turbine
• Nuclear fission- If the nucleus of a heavy atom (Uranium, Thorium) absorbs a neutron, the nucleus becomes unstable and splits.
• Nuclear fusion- Tritium + Deuterium becomes neutron +Helium (Happens on the sun)
• Uranium -Heavy atom used in fission reactions
• U235 – isotope that undergoes fission
• U238 – non fissionable. The majority of mined U is U 238.  To concentrate enough U235, we need to “enrich” uranium.
• Thorium-Heavy atom used in fission reactions (can’t create nuclear weapons)
• **Critical- The plant is at a normal level – just enough to sustain a controlled nuclear reaction
• Sub-critical- The energy output is not efficient enough to sustain nuclear fission
• **Super Critical- Too muh energy is being produced, usually not a safe point. – uncontrolled fission (melt down possible)
• Boiling Water Reactor- One reactor that changes water density and temperature to produce energy (usually for electricity) Radioactive water comes in direct contact with turbine, but not with environment.http://www.nrc.gov/images/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/student-bwr.gif

• Pressurized Water Reactor- A thermal reactor where steam is produced through heat exchange rather than the core so that radioactive water does not come into direct contact with the turbine (also usually for electricity)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/PressurizedWaterReactor.gif
• 
  
• Containment- One of the most critical parts of a nuclear power plant.  Usually a building around the reactor
• Fuushima- Location of nuclear meltdown in Japan where the cooling system failed
• TOKAMEK- First fusion test reactor in Russia
• ITER- International project involving building a fusion reactor to test the concept. This is taking decades to build and is funded by many nations, This is a ”TOKAMEK” type of  fusion reactormeaning it means a particular type of magnetic confinement to get plasma up to 150 degrees C
• Reactor Core- Part of the reactor that contains the fuel and allows reactions to take place

Questions to think about (from Tammie):

·        

• How is a nuclear power plant like a coffee pot?
• ***How is electrical energy made from heat in general? How do turbines, steam, generators, and heat exchangers play a role? This corresponds to what you learned on your energy posters too!***
• ·    What is a heat exchanger and how does it work (in a very general sense)
• **** We can break apart nuclei to get energy (fission). We can combine nuclei to get energy (fusion).How can that be? It would seem that we should be able to get energy out only one way or the other – putting things together or taking them apart. What gives?  Hint: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nucene/nucbin.html http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch23/graphics/23_7fig.gif

Just FYI from the Smithsonian, “The Kola Superdeep Borehole was just 9 inches in diameter, but at 40,230 feet (12,262 meters) reigns as the deepest hole. It took almost 20 years to reach that 7.5-mile depth—only half the distance or less to the mantle. Among the more interesting discoveries: microscopic plankton fossils found at four miles down. The Kola hole was abandoned in 1992 when drillers encountered higher-than-expected temperatures—356 degrees Fahrenheit, not the 212 degrees that had been mapped.”