The Nitrogen Pollution 300 Times Faster in Increasing The Risk of Climate Change

Nitrogen Pollution Increases The Population of Algae in Freshwater (image is credited to http://www.msrivercollab.org)

It has been arguably statement that Nitrogen could be affected the climate change as it is demanded importantly for our food preservation. However, the data could not be avoided that Nitrogen could cause more damage to the environment. Subsequently, we need to think deeper about how we use the fertilizers particularly those which related to nitrogen-integrated ecosystem.

Nitrogen (N2) is one of the inert gases which is needed for certain activities and those are including in farming sector. The agriculture aspect demands the gas for the growth of plants, such as vegetables. However, the more nitrogen we demand, the higher risk will be gotten. Nitrogen itself could be improving the growth of blue-green algae which is considered as toxic plant impacting the ecosystem. According to the recent events, the problems associated to nitrogen produce lots of greenhouse gasses resulting to ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and nitrous oxide, which contribute to acid rain or matter. Therefore, to counter this problem, scientists and farmers must reform the way of growing plants by using fertilizers.

Compared to the carbon dioxide pollution, chemical compounds based on nitrogen is far higher in impacting the climate change. As we mentioned previously, the leakage of nitrogen affects the ecosystem life in freshwater such as in river, basin and lake. In the United States (US) itself, the effects contribute up to 24 percent of contamination in Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin, while in the Europe itself it is estimated that more than 70 billion Euros of costs in preventing the pollution. How it happens?

The causes of compounds based on nitrogen
The beginning of the nitrogen pollution is started by the burning of fossil fuels in large-scale such as coal and oil. In petroleum industries, the nitrogen is used to prevent the process of ignition while at the same time it can reduce the corrosion in a vessel/tank. On the other hand, the discovery of Haber-Bosch process which allows the N2 to become inert contributes to the presence of ammonia in synthesizing valuable and cheaper fertilizers, which are needed to supply the global demands. As a result, either Nitric Oxide (NO) or Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and some acidic compounds are produced. The question is how are we going to reduce the contamination of nitrogen?

In addition to reduce the nitrogen pollution, we must avoid exaggeration use of nitrogen based compounds, such as in large scale use of nitrogen fertilizers. On the other hand, the declining utilization of fossil fuels in combustion process must be avoided particularly in providing the electricity.

Who is to be blame, the human appetite or the global corporation for climate change?

Climate change is happening to the Earth

In fact, climate change is happening currently during our daily activity. When you travel with aircraft going abroad or domestic, we actually experience the climate change. We see the planet getting warmer and warmer, and we realize the ice sheets in the northern pole is melting. We also agreed that our utilization of fossil fuels increasing the temperature of the planet. But, still most of us do nothing!

Climate change was firstly experienced in around 70s and 80s and it has been one of the biggest threat ever since. And it will be predicted that if the earth’s temperature constantly rises the climate change will be experienced significantly by the future young generations. This issue currently become global problem which most of people must put their concern on it. As we know that the climate change could alter our planet significantly throughout its effects including flooding, drought, increasing of sea level, and many more.

Who are behind the happening of climate change?
Many environmentalists and scientists have shown us about the increasing level of global temperature and they also provide us with the natural evidence throughout the weather and environmental damage. Both of them agreed that the increasing level of the planet is caused by the presence of greenhouse gasses preventing the heat energy from the Sun. But scientifically speaking, one of the greenhouse gasses, which is the carbon dioxide, is needed for the plants to do photosynthesis. It means, to prevent the warming, we just need to replant the trees. But, that is not the problem!

Methane which is classified as greenhouse gasses has been elevating in the last decades. Statistically speaking, the methane gas has increased significantly from around 1,000 ppb in 1950 to almost 2,000 ppb in 2015 (part per billion). Unlike carbon dioxide, methane gas is very abundant but it is quite difficult to capture and store because its gaseous state in normal conditions either for temperature and pressure. So, why methane?

As previously mentioned early, this relative abundance gas in Earth is natural and lots of microorganisms and organisms have been producing it. Livestock is one of the biggest organisms in the planet that produce the methane gas in high numbers. Due to our demand in eating meat as the source of protein, livestock animals’ numbers are increasing implying to the higher level of methane. So, basically, it is merely on our appetite to consume lots, lots of meat.

But, methane as natural gas is also abundant in the planet, and this gas is utilized for electricity. Many nations throughout their petroleum companies and industries have been exploiting this gas for certain uses. Economically speaking, this gas is gold for certain nations. As a result, exploration and mining are occurred around the world causing the methane gas which is trapped inside the surface leaks to the atmosphere. This adds and makes the quantities of the methane in the atmosphere elevating. And, oil and gas companies around the world realize this issue.

It is still debatable!
Whether the global corporation in exploring the earth or the high rates of meat consumption affects the planet by increasing the temperature. But, the seven billion people in the world is in dilemma because we do not know either to choose short-term or long-term solution. Apparently, in stopping the global corporation will solve the problem in short-term as people will not use the gas in significant numbers. However, this solution will not be accepted easily by societies particularly who live in developed countries because most of them lies on the electricity.

Unlike developed countries, people in developing or underdeveloped countries will not easily give up their life only for saving the planet. Psychologically speaking, they think firstly for emerging their family from poverty not some sort of action particularly stopping eating meat which in the future affects the health of their family. So, generally, to solve the climate crisis is far more complicated than we think.

To be concluded, instead of arguing which one is the reason of causing the climate change, it is better for us as human being to be actively reduce the activity which can affect the environment such as planting the trees. And at the same time, the government addresses the climate crisis by providing renewable energy such as solar and wind energy.

Solar energy project in France perhaps ineffective

solar panelled roads in france

Building our own resources of energy is becoming quite interesting today. With the little concern about high-damaged power plants, such as what was happened in Chernobyl, green energy from green technology has invited many scientists and engineers to build. However, the problem lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of the energy resources, which one of them is the Solar Energy.

In November 2017, the France has published their project in harvesting energy from solar cell. Well, this thing is common for many people in the world today, so what is the difference between France on the others? It looks like, the France has built and opened the world’s first solar powered road! Located in the village of Tourovre-au-Perche in Normandy Region, called Wattway. Interestingly, according to the report of advfn website, this project costed over five million euros to build this road which many people consider as ineffective for only a single lane one-kilometer of road.

Although the road is in trial, the Wattway project is only one-kilometer-long covered by almost 3,000 photovoltaic panels. This implies to the high expectancy of the officials in generating electricity in high amount. To be informed well, this road will be used by the vehicles approximately 2,000 daily for two-year test period.

What makes this idea ineffective?
One of the biggest problem on harvesting energy from solar cell is the ability of the cell to convert the sunlight and the intensity of the light per day. So, it will be inefficient when the solar radiation that comes to the cell is small because of the amount of daylight per day in certain countries is less than 12 hours. On the other hand, the solar cells are installed in the road indicating the vehicles block the solar radiation from the atmosphere, giving lack of efficiency. With budget over five million Euros, this idea could be unprecedented given the weather condition.

However, the ministry of France which is responsible to this project believes this project in generating electricity for 280 megawatt hours (MWh) so that the 5,000 population in the village, Tourouvre-au-Perches, will be lighted. Nevertheless, the prediction is still unbelievable because the electricity probably will be able to light the streetlight.

Given the weather dependency, pointing the costs of production, the solar panels are installed in all houses in the village are more effective and efficient. The residence will be able to consume and organize the source of electricity properly.

1,000 kilometers on the next four years
Solar road concepts could be a good idea “if” the efficiency of the solar radiation might have been solved. However, the project leader sees this as one of big opportunity to do. As the rooftop solar cell panels depends on the angle or it is depended on the position of the roof. The solar road concept which has flat angle probably are more efficient than the rooftop. This trial and error will lead to the another project, installing 1,000 kilometers of solar-panelled roads. If this two-years of trial is succeeded, then it will trigger another countries in the world to build the same project.

What are Elon Musk has been building?

Elon at TED

When hearing the name of Elon Musk, most people, particularly the young technopreneurs or scientists will be amazed by his name. Truth to be told, today’s young generation in the world probably wants to be like Musk. But, what is exactly everything that relates to him?

If you are familiar to the name of Tesla Motor Company, then you must be already knowing who is Elon Musk. But, for you who are not familiar with him, then may be you currently are familiar with the company of SpaceX or SolarCity, and in the last two years he has been establishing the scientific based companies named the Boring Company and Neuralink.

Musk is considered as one of the top influencer in the world as his proposals in science applied has been opened the mind-set of world’s societies about the implementation of science and engineering in solving the social problems. For instance, the Boring Company which was founded nine months ago is a company which provides tunneling construction. Throughout this company, Musk thinks that today’s transportation is not efficient and effective because they generate greenhouse gas when having traffic congestion. Therefore, he proposed not only short-term solution but also long-term solution.

Until now, throughout his company, Elon Musk has been provided solution for global society in the field of transportation, energy and environment sustainability.

Bringing people to Mars
One of the most promising works that Musk has been working today is the SpaceX project which has cooperation with several public domain organizations such as NASA and ISS in experimenting the space travel from Earth to Mars. The Space X which stands for space eXploration is an aerospace manufacture and space transport. In 2001, Elon Musk proposed his idea about Mars Oasis which is to colonialize Mars by reconstructing the environment throughout growing plants.

To achieve its goal, the SpaceX has been experimenting several rocket launch since September 2008. But, the most incredible thing is the solution of controllable landing rocket. The success mission was Falcon 9 on April 2016 and until now they have been developing significance changing in term of space transportation.

So, what are others thing that Elon Musk has been constructing? They are: SolarCity an OpenAI.

Harvesting Hydrogen fuel from seawater

The illustration of hydrogen produced from seawater made by artist

The possibility of harvesting clean energy from seawater – which is one of the most abundant material in the Earth – will become possible as researchers from University of Central Florida (UCF) have found method to produce this fuel. The fuel sounds promising because hydrogen is considered as clean energy resources. So, how it works?

Technically speaking, seawater could be cracked so the hydrogen and oxygen are separated. To do so, one of the possible method is by utilizing the electricity, however, this method requires high energy so it can be considered as inefficient and ineffective. Therefore, the scientists of University of Central Florida came out with an idea by implementing the photosynthesis process which utilizes the solar radiation as energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. It turns out, this idea becomes one of the promising method in harvesting clean energy in term of efficient and less expensive costs.

Currently, the demands of clean energy are growing astronomically as the fossil fuels probably will be decreasing in the next few decades. The main source of utilization of fossil fuels is the transportation. To transport people from one place to another place, we need vehicles which are powered by the fossil fuel, however, the side-effects create environmental impacts as the quantities carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide become higher and higher. Consequently, global warming which can cause higher temperature threatens our planet.

Hydrogen as the main source of fuel for machinery

It has been considered for so long that hydrogen could become one of the most promising strategy in preventing global warming. By using hydrogen, the result is not greenhouse gasses, on the contrary, it generates water when the hydrogen is burned with oxygen. On the other hand, the raw materials – which is the material that can be processed for the hydrogen – are abundant, such as seawater or groundwater. But, why today’s society still does not utilize the hydrogen power optimize?

The answer lies on the facilities and infrastructures that support the hydrogen powered machinery. For instance, today’s equipment utilizes fossil fuels as the main source of energy while hydrogen powered engine is not yet to be found in common. The only transportation that uses hydrogen as its main power is rocket so hydrogen is considered as ineffective and inefficient.

Separating hydrogen and oxygen by solar radiation

Nature has taught us how to harvest energy. In photosynthesis mechanism, the solar radiation is utilized to perform photocatalytic reaction which can separate the hydrogen from the water bonding. The scientists considered that the solar energy could be utilized only extracting the hydrogen from seawater for purifying. However, as it is reported in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, the lead scientist, Yang and his research team were able to develop new catalyst for this reaction. As a result, the finding is not only about the energy harvesting but also to maintain harvesting in harsh condition.

Catalysts is used to accelerate the reaction without involving with the reaction itself. By performing typical catalysts  such as titanium oxide which is etched by tiny nanocavities coating with molybdenum disulfide, the research team is able to boost certain spectrum of light which has typical energy so they could harvest the energy. Yang’s team also performed controlling of sulfur vacancy within size of nanoflakes in addition to harvest energy in certain wavelength in particular from ultraviolet-visible to near-infrared indicating the efficiency of the utilization of photocatalysts.

To be concluded, this method could become the most promising method as the material used for harvesting energy is abundant. Furthermore, the utilization of solar radiation as the main energy to do separating the bonding is considered as effective and efficient. More importantly, in processing the hydrogen, the catalyst is relatively easy and inexpensive implying that the hydrogen fuels will be possible in the future to harvest.

References:
[1] Image is downloaded from www.phys.org

Carbon-based fuel could be the promising solution in prevent global warming

Carbon dioxide resulted from machinery creates global warming in the Earth

When global warming happens to our planet, many people including scientists have been trying to reduce any activities that related to the production of carbon dioxide. As we know, the Earth is becoming warmer because the Solar radiation cannot be bounced back by carbon dioxide. As a result, the energy that is emitted from the solar radiation is kept so it increases the temperature.

One of the best solution is by capturing the carbon dioxide which is considered as the main reason in keeping the temperature inside the Earth. The process of capturing carbon dioxide is by increasing the numbers of living organisms who are able to perform photosynthesis. Mostly, this photoautotrophic living organisms are the plants and green algae. They could capture and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is very dangerous for the planet. However, the main reason of increasing numbers of carbon dioxide is not merely biological waste of metabolism, but also perfect combustion occurred on the machinery.

Since the revolution industry in the United Kingdom, the development of machinery has been improving day after day. Currently, the demands of machinery has been influencing the needs of human everyday. For instance, aspect of transportation and electricity are the examples of this machinery aspect. The utilization of vehicles either in transporting goods or people require tonnes of fossil fuels and the result created by the use of vehicles is the increasing numbers of carbon dioxide. On the other hand, the demands for electricity is also increasing at the same time for the development of technology in the field of electronic devices.

Although we can capture the carbon dioxide caused by the transportation sector, our next issue is located on the sector of electricity. Currently, many countries including several developed countries depend on the power plant powered by fossil fuels. The solar-powered electric plants have not been yet optimized, while the hydro and solar -powered power plants require several requirements. Therefore, our solution is one which is creating sustainable development.

Fortunately, Chemists from Caltech which is also the director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute were able to perform carbon conversion method. I beg your pardon? What can be converted from this carbon? The answer is fuel. This solution could become the state-of-the-art technology because it produces fuel that is fabricated from carbon dioxide and this is not made from derivation of coal or oil.

The decision of choosing fuels from carbon dioxide because its properties. Fuel containing multiple carbon atom are effective because its phase is liquid which have volatility and flammability. The advantages from these two properties are the liquid is able to perform perfect combustion in form of gas. Therefore, efficiency in producing heat energy which can be used to run the piston in the machinery.

The study also can answer the global climate change because of the needs of carbon dioxide as the base of the fuel. So, while decreasing the amount of greenhouse gas, the fuel is created. This could reduce the global warming from carbon dioxide.

Reference:
[1] Image is downloaded from https://phys.org/

Lithium may be deposited under supervolcano

Lithium concentration was found in floor of crater lake of Oregon

Supervolcanoes are similar to common volcano, however, they are far more superior in the term of volcano-activity. For example, three of the most superior supervolcanoes in the world are located in Indonesia and they are Toba, Tambora and Krakatau. These supervolcanos had erupted long time ago and they have been providing rich-nutrient for the nearby ground. But, what makes these supervolcanoes becoming interesting?

Recently, researchers from Stanford University were able to locate deposits of lithium in supervolcanoes. They published their study on nature suggesting that the Lithium actually is deposited in caldera basins in form of rhyolite magmas. This finding suggested us about the possibility of vast natural resources in caldera created by the eruption of supervolcanoes. But how we can mine this metal?

Caldera is produced by volcanic activities such massive eruptions which had happened years ago. The eruptions pushed the magmas beneath the volcanoes so they will be pushed off the volcanoes. But, for supervolcanoes, as we mentioned previously, their eruptions are far more superior than common volcanoes. To be precise, it is 10,000 more than Hawaiian volcanoes. This means that mineral resources beneath the supervolcanoes must have been pushed off the underground. As a result, the activities formed soil sedimentation for layers if the eruption happened for several times.
So, what can be mined from the sedimentation?

Mostly, we could say that the soil of caldera is composed by many rich-nutrients in particular for biological activities such as carbon-rich soil. However, the finding found in Crater Lake in Oregon was soil-deposited Lithium(http://news.stanford.edu/2017/08/16/supervolcanoes-key-americas-electric-future/). Interestingly, the common chemical compounds providing by the volcanoes are mostly Sulphur. For instance, in Indonesia, Kawah Ijen crater lake has been mined by local citizens for the Sulphur. However, the Sulphur is in form of banded sediments and as subaqueous molten body on the floor of the crater [1].

On the other hand, the Stanford researchers stated that the depositions of Lithium are represented in form of pegmatites, brines, and clays suggesting the location is in the floor of the crater [2]. The process of sedimentation in volcanoes were occurred during the process of crystallization of water-rich and most of them are happened during the formation of rhyolitic lava or magma. Based on their findings, the indicators of determining the concentration of the Lithium itself lies on the composition of the rhylolitic magma which is the Zircon concentration. The more Zircon you have, the least Lithium you get, and vice versa.

Therefore, the possibility of Lithium sedimentation is presence in the floor of crater of volcanoes particularly in caldera of supervolcanoes. So, it is possible that Indonesia may have Lithium resources? The possibility is yes. This possibility was based on the research conducted by Wataru Tanikawa in the mud of Lapindo Brantas.

To be concluded, the sedimentation of crater has high possibility of Lithium deposits specifically the caldera created by supervolcanoes. This conclusion was based on the research conducted in the Oregon Lake. But, more importantly, why Lithium? Find more information on the next article.

Reference

[1] P. Delmelle, A. Bernard, M. Kusakabe, T. P. Fischer and B. Takano, "Geochemistry of the magmatic-hydrothermal system of Kawah Ijen volcano, East Java, Indonesia," Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, no. 97, pp. 31-53, 2000. 

[2] T. R. Benson, M. A. Coble, J. J. Rytuba and G. A. Mahood, "Lithium enrichment in intracontinental rhyolite magmas leads to Li deposits in caldera basins," Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 270, pp. 1-9, 2017. 

[3] Image is downloaded from http://www.worldatlas.com/