Oak Ridge Today

ORAU receives National Science Foundation grant to study greenhouse gases in Arctic

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Praveena Krishnan

The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs has awarded ORAU a collaborative research grant to study greenhouse gas emissions in the Arctic. The award is valued at $581,829.

The grant will be used to study local and regional emissions of isotopes of methane and carbon dioxide. Methane and carbon dioxide are two greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases can help raise the Earth’s temperature, changing the climate and causing other significant changes. (Isotopes are different forms of an element that have equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.)

In a press release, ORAU said carbon stored in permafrost is increasingly vulnerable to thaw and decomposition by microbes as northern latitudes such as the Arctic continue to warm.

“This decomposition has the potential to lead to large increases in methane and carbon dioxide emissions, both important greenhouse gases,” ORAU said. “Accurate and reliable forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions are critical for the improvement of global models that predict changes to temperature and sea level.”

[Read more…]

If successful, ORNL process could play role in fighting climate change

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Rondinone_Song_hensley_r1

ORNL’s Yang Song (seated), Dale Hensley (standing left), and Adam Rondinone examine a carbon nanospike sample with a scanning electron microscope. (Photo by Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

 

In October, Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced that scientists had developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol.

This month, Oak Ridge Today asked if the process using the very small catalysts could be used on a large scale to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into ethanol, and if that might be used to combat climate change.

Here is the response from researcher Adam Rondinone, lead author of a team’s study published in ChemistrySelect:

“If we are successful, then yes, this process will take us a little bit closer to the goal of mitigating climate change.  But many other technologies and changes will also be needed, because of the scale of the problem. Also, this technology is more focused on what to do with CO2 (carbon dioxide) once it has been captured. While it could feasibly be coupled to a capture mechanism for extracting CO2 from the air, it will more likely be used to intercept and recycle emissions from point sources like power plants. Ultimately, it will just be one solution out of many that we will need to implement in order to prevent serious climate changes.” [Read more…]

ORNL: Crystallization method offers new option for carbon capture from air

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carbon_dioxide_direct_air_capture2-custelcean

Using X-ray diffraction, ORNL’s Radu Custelcean analyzed the molecular structure of the simple guanidine compound and was surprised to find carbonate, a crystal that forms when carbon dioxide from air reacts with water. (Image credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin)

 

By Sara Shoemaker, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found a simple, reliable process to capture carbon dioxide directly from ambient air, offering a new option for carbon capture and storage strategies to combat global warming.

Ambient air is air that completely surrounds.

Initially, the ORNL team was studying methods to remove environmental contaminants such as sulfate, chromate, or phosphate from water. To remove those negatively charged ions, the researchers synthesized a simple compound known as guanidine designed to bind strongly to the contaminants and form insoluble crystals that are easily separated from water.

In the process, they discovered a method to capture and release carbon dioxide that requires minimal energy and chemical input. Their results are published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. [Read more…]

Headrick to discuss individual, collective climate solutions at ORUUC

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Climate activist Mary Headrick, a doctor, will discuss the importance of both collective actions and “next steps” attendees can take can take to effectively reduce the carbon footprint on Thursday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. The program is free and open to the public. The church is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge.

“Our nation has heard reports of quadrupled extreme weather disasters, rising sea levels, rising global temperatures, and disruption of water, food, and animal cycles due to a man-made climate crisis,” Headrick said in a press release. She will show attendees how to calculate their own carbon dioxide, or CO2, tonnage with and without both big “bang for the buck” changes and small changes, too. She suggests things as knowing your utility bill’s kilowatt-hours (kWh) and your gallons of gas per tankful (each gallon becomes 20 pounds of CO2). [Read more…]

DOE event marks beginning of landmark ecosystem experiment

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Carbon Dioxide Test Chambers

By controlling the temperature and the amount of carbon dioxide in the test chambers, scientists hope to learn how microbial communities, moss populations, various higher plant types, and some insect groups respond. (Photo by ORNL)

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn.—Scientists are getting a glimpse of the future with a U.S. Department of Energy large-scale experiment designed to answer questions about how carbon-rich peatlands will respond to projected warming of the climate and increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

SPRUCE, which stands for Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change, was launched Wednesday, August 26, at the experiment site about 25 miles north of Grand Rapids. Among those attending the ceremony were Gary Geernaert and Daniel Stover of DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research; Thomas Schmidt, assistant director for research, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Northern Research Station; and Martin Keller, associate laboratory director of Energy and Environmental Sciences at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The site consists of about seven acres of raised bog in the peatlands of the Chippewa National Forest. The natural spruce bog in northern Minnesota contains more than 10,000 years of carbon accumulated from peatlands and answers to questions related to the predicted warming of ecosystems. [Read more…]

Environmentalists, others to challenge Fleischmann, Duncan on global warming

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Volunteers have organized two press conferences today (Thursday) to challenge Tennessee congressmen John Duncan and Chuck Fleischmann to accept and then work to stop human-caused climate change, a press release said.

The first press conference is at 11 a.m. Thursday at Duncan’s Knoxville office at the Howard H. Baker Jr. U.S. Courthouse. The second is at 2 p.m. in front of the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton.

The press release said the press conferences will include prominent business people, clergy, a fossil fuel technologist, a child advocate, environmentalists, educators, and students. [Read more…]

UT professor receives more than $880,000 in DOE funding for carbon cycle research

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UT Students Measure Soil Carbon Flux

Doctoral candidate Jessica Bryant, left; Associate Professor Aimee Classen, middle; and University of Tennessee undergraduate student Kelsey Richesin use Li-Cor 6400, a machine that measure carbon flux from soil. (Photo courtesy UT)

KNOXVILLE—Carbon dioxide is key to life on Earth, but too much of the good thing can overheat the Earth’s surface and hurt the very things it supports. Thus, understanding how carbon cycles through the atmosphere is crucial to predicting its effects.

A University of Tennessee professor in Knoxville has received more than $880,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to investigate often-overlooked carbon cycle players.

Aimee Classen, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and her team, which includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory staff members, will examine factors that influence carbon cycling below the ground and are not included in today’s carbon-cycle models.

“We know that tiny things that live in soil, like fungi, can regulate carbon processes in forests. However, our current soil models don’t consider what role fungal and plant root activity may play in soil carbon dynamics. Our project aims to fill this knowledge gap,” Classen said. [Read more…]

Neutrons, electrons, and theory reveal secrets of natural gas reserves

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Scanning Electronic Microscope Image of Unconventional Gas Reservoir

A scanning electron microscope image illustrating mineralogy and texture of an unconventional gas reservoir. Note that nanoporosity is not resolvable with this image. SANS and USANS analysis is required to quantify pore size distribution and interconnectivity. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Gas and oil deposits in shale have no place to hide from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technique that provides an inside look at pores and reveals structural information potentially vital to the nation’s energy needs.

The research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory could clear the path to the more efficient extraction of gas and oil from shale, environmentally benign and efficient energy production from coal, and perhaps viable carbon dioxide sequestration technologies, according to Yuri Melnichenko, an instrument scientist at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor. [Read more…]

TVA’s Green Power Switch generates one million megawatt-hours of electricity

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TVA Ed Stephens and Buffalo Mountain Wind Farm

Ed Stephens, program manager for the Renewable Energy Program at the Tennessee Valley Authority, explains the 18 wind turbines at the Buffalo Mountain Wind Farm north of Oliver Springs.

WINDROCK MOUNTAIN—A Tennessee Valley Authority program that allows customers to buy electricity produced by renewable energy sources has generated about one million megawatt-hours—enough to power 68,000 homes, officials said Monday.

TVA considers the innovative Green Power Switch program, the first of its kind in the Southeast when it started 13 years ago, a success story. TVA said the program has helped prevent more than 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. That’s equal to keeping about 135,000 cars off the road for a year.

And it’s grown from 2,000 customers in 2000 to roughly 12,000 today. That could be because customers today are more aware of environmental concerns and have a greater understanding of their power sources, said Patty West, director of TVA’s Renewable Energy Program. [Read more…]

UT professor helps discover near-Earth asteroid really a comet

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Don Quixote Orbit

This image displays Don Quixote’s orbit. (Image courtesy University of Tennessee)

KNOXVILLE—Some things are not always what they seem—even in space. For 30 years, scientists believed a large near-Earth object was an asteroid. Now, an international team including Joshua Emery, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has discovered it is actually a comet.

Called 3552 Don Quixote, the body is the third largest near-Earth object—mostly rocky bodies, or asteroids, that orbit the sun in the vicinity of Earth. About 5 percent of near-Earth objects are thought to be “dead” comets that have shed all the water and carbon dioxide in the form of ice that give them their coma—a cloud surrounding the comet nucleus—and tail. [Read more…]

‘Do the math’ about fossil fuels, global warming, activist says

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Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben

Since April 21, environmental activist Bill McKibben’s “Do the Math” movie has been shown around the nation and world. Its message is that catastrophic climate change looms large this century if fossil fuel use is not restricted.

In Oak Ridge, the movie has been shown several times at First Presbyterian Church, which is sponsoring McKibben’s lecture on Sunday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center. The movie can be downloaded from McKibben’s grassroots organization www.350.org.

The author of two classics of environmental literature, “The End of Nature,” and “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet,” McKibben had the movie made after 350.org’s successful “Do the Math” tour of cities last fall. “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math,” McKibben’s article a year ago in Rolling Stone magazine, inspired the tour. [Read more…]

Green author, activist to speak Aug. 18 in Oak Ridge

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Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben, “the planet’s best green journalist,” according to Time magazine and author of a dozen books about the environment, will speak on fossil fuels and climate change in August in Oak Ridge.

The lecture will be at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

McKibben is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 190 countries since 2009 and sponsored a 21-city “Do The Math” tour last fall. The “Do The Math” movie has been shown in numerous cities this past spring and several times at First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge, including by a new Secret City Sustainability group of college students. The movie is available online at 350.org. [Read more…]