'Engineering Developments are Mitigating Climate Change' - Part TWO
The entire article has been Published in the Lancashire Magazine and is available on request to norman@normanharris.co.uk
I hope that you found Part One of Engineering Mitigating Climate Change interesting. In Part TWO I deal with the developments that reduce or change the major ways that energy is used and thus reduce CO2 emissions and conserve the planet’s resources.
First I want to address tackling the Green House Gases (GHG) directly. CO2 is the leading such gas. Others such the refrigerator gas freon, have strict have strict regulations on their disposal. Methane is natural gas from animals and vegetable decomposition and is harder to control (except by banning meat), but methane is relatively easy to convert into something useful. However, returning to CO2 which is produced in great quantities by combustion. Efforts are now underway to extract it directly from the atmosphere. There are schemes to build huge man-made trees with membrane leaves which react with the air and capture the CO2. Singapore has turned them into an artwork.
But calculations show that to really make an impact there would have to be many more of them and much bigger, higher in other words and if we are going to get more severe storms because of climate change, they may not survive. Something much more robust is needed that actively removes CO2, such installations are called Direct Air Capture.
Direct Air Capture
Working in the atmosphere there is a new technology which captures CO2 from the air by passing it through vanes or radiators, which react chemically and produce a carbon-based by-product, probably a fuel which can be collected and used as it is carbon neutral. The CO2 is reduced in that area. Iceland is building a plant to take 4,000 tonnes p.a. of CO2 out of their atmosphere, a small amount but a start. The DAC plants cannot be rotated and so catch the wind, so power to drive the fans is needed. This can be surplus wind or solar energy. I have a personally idea that a unit on a wind turbine would always be into the wind and if the wind drops the fuel created could be used for a period of calm to drive the turbine and still create power. DAC installations are big and not pretty. Perhaps eventually they too will go offshore on say a barge.
Heating homes and workplaces is responsible for a third of all energy consumed in Europe and vies with transport as the top UK creator of CO2. While renewable energy will help reduce emissions, it is not always readily available when needed. For example, there is less solar energy available in the dark and cold winter months. When it is more needed, fortunately there may be more wind. Everything we are doing to avoid burning fossil fuels is increasing the demand for electricity.
The entire artical is availabe on request from norman@normanharris.co.uk