and can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline according to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The U s. Department of energy has provided more than $1 billion in federal funds to support research to develop cellulosic biofuels including ethanol made from corn stover.
While the cellulosic biofuel production process has yet to be commercialized extensively several private companies are specialized developing biorefineries capable of converting tough corn fibers into fuel.
The team found that removing crop residue from cornfields generates an additional 50 to 70 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of biofuel energy produced (a joule is a measure of energy
--which is 7 percent greater than gasoline emissions and 62 grams above the 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as required by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
but it results in a smaller biofuel energy yield Liska said. To mitigate increased carbon dioxide emissions
or wood residue or export electricity from biofuel production facilities to offset emissions from coal-fueled power plants.
and significantly reduce the nation's demand for fuel as required by the 2012 CAFE standards.
which was funded through a three-year $500000 grant from the U s. Department of energy used carbon dioxide measurements taken from 2001 to 2010 to validate a soil carbon model that was built using data from 36 field studies across North america Europe Africa and Asia.
An unintended consequence of reduced timber harvesting may be reduced capacity to subsidize other restoration activities--either through revenue from timber sales or through manipulation of vegetation and woody fuels during logging.
What landowners should knowcumulative habitat loss encroachment by invasive woody plants wind energy development petroleum production
and energy said Dr. Fred Davies senior science advisor for the agency's bureau of food security.
Food issues could become as politically destabilizing by 2050 as energy issues are today. Davies who also is a Texas A&m Agrilife Regents Professor of Horticultural Sciences addressed the North american Agricultural Journalists meeting in Washington D c. on the monumental challenge of feeding the world.
Most greenhouse gases come from burning fossil fuels to produce energy although deforestation industrial processes and some agricultural practices also emit gases into the atmosphere according to the Environmental protection agency.
Greenhouse gases act like a blanket around Earth trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm.
but because the energy sector is contributing more. IPCC Assessment Reports Backgroundthe IPCC was started in the late 1980s
In addition however agriculture's use of fossil energy could be reduced as a mitigation step Rice said:
and use less tillage we're also using less energy. We can make agriculture more efficient
and more profitable in this way because energy is a significant cost. So it has the benefit of reducing emissions direct and indirect and therefore increasing profitability.
Robinson is working with the coal-mining company Solid Energy New zealand and The swiss Federal Institute of technology to determine
Energy balance disturbedthe researchers used an advanced computer model based on realistic projections of the speed and the spatial pattern of deforestation to forecast changes in the Congo Basin climate The study also maps the region's vegetation mix
Once deforestation has occurred the solar energy that rainforests would otherwise use to evaporate water accumulates near the Earth's surface causing the atmosphere to warm.
-poor forests spend a lot of energy--carbon--through mechanisms to acquire nutrients from the soil whereas nutrient-rich forests can use that carbon to enhance biomass production.
For one thing plants in nutrient-poor soils devote more energy to locating nutrients. When plants are in nutrient poor conditions they send out more roots
This takes energy though and so the plants produce less biomass says Obersteiner. Furthermore the study showed that nutrient-rich ecosystems also generally have more stable ground organic material
Hertwich was one of the lead authors of the Energy Systems chapter. One of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions is coal power Hertwich says.
Coal-fired power plants produce a lot of pollution so any measures that will reduce our combustion of coal will also help us to fight air pollution.
Experts estimate that a quarter of a million people die prematurely each year in China because of air pollution from the country's coal-fired power plants.
Five pages 500 commentshertwich's contribution as one of the lead authors of the Energy Systems chapter amounts to roughly 5 pages.
what humankind is doing to the climate by burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
when it comes to energy sources Hertwich said. The world is making significant investments in renewable energy
which in turn is making renewables cheaper and easier to bring to market. What I found was really surprising was the rate at
when solar power was more of a novelty source of energy for individuals who were too far from power lines to get conventional electricity from the grid.
In fact today we install the equivalent of 100 large coal-fired power plants--the same capacity in renewables--every year he said.
However we haven't started phasing out the coal-fired power plants so this needs to happen too.
and started to improve when the U s. Clean Air Act of 1970 required coal power plants and other polluters to scrub sulfur out of their smokestacks.
You can really see the effect of the Clean Air Act in 1970 which had the most dramatic impact on emission of acid from coal-fired power plants.
Part of the mercury from industrial and domestic activities (burning of hydrocarbons and coal) is transported to the Arctic and Antarctic by winds.
Co-located solar-biofuel systems could be a novel strategy for generating two forms of energy from uncultivable lands:
electricity from solar infrastructure and easily transportable liquid fuel from biofuel cultivation said Ravi the lead author of a new study published in a recent issue of the journal Environmental science & Technology that details the idea.
This approach could allow us to produce energy and agriculture with the same water. But which crops to use?
Native to North and South america the prickly plant can be used to produce liquid ethanol a biofuel that can be mixed with gasoline
or food or energy sometimes leads to creative solutions said Lobell who is a coauthor on the new study.
Most ethanol today is produced at high-temperature fermentation facilities that chemically convert corn sugarcane and other plants into liquid fuel.
Carbon neutralthe Stanford team has begun looking for ways to create other fuels and improve the overall efficiency of the process.
Propanol would actually be a higher energy-density fuel than ethanol but right now there is no efficient way to produce it.
For the process to be carbon neutral scientists will have to find a new way to make carbon monoxide from renewable energy instead of fossil fuel the primary source today.
which in turn would be fed to a copper catalyst to make liquid fuel. The CO2 that is released into the atmosphere during fuel combustion would be reused to make more carbon monoxide
but the missing piece was the efficient conversion of carbon monoxide to a useful fuel that's liquid easy to store and nontoxic Kanan said Prior to our study there was a sense that no catalyst could efficiently reduce carbon monoxide to a liquid.
or develop a new catalyst that converts carbon monoxide to fuel. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Stanford university.
Charcoal is another form of black carbon. Each form is produced naturally by wildfires as well by industry and other human activities.
This helps us narrow down the role of the ocean as a sink for both soot and charcoal.
Materials with high electron mobility are preferred often to reduce power consumption and heating in microelectronic devices.
Researchers at the U s. Department of energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory who are co-authors on this paper conducted critical radiotracer studies that support the new theory that plant sugars play a dominant role in regulating branching
Brookhaven plant biologist Benjamin Babst and Brittany Wienclaw who was a summer intern as part of the DOE Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program at Brookhaven
Relevance to Bioenergybrookhaven's role in this research was funded by the U s. Department of energy's Office of Science
The above story is provided based on materials by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory. The original article was written by Karen Mcnulty Walsh.
and energy expenditure) between males and females in modern farming populations is much more variable than in foraging groups.
The research is by Dr Derrick Bennett Nuffield Department of Population Health University of Oxford UK and colleagues.
and biofuel a breakthrough that will mean using fewer chemicals less energy and creating fewer environmental pollutants.
Currently the lignin must be removed a process that requires significant chemicals and energy and causes undesirable waste.
We're designing trees to be processed with less energy and fewer chemicals and ultimately recovering more wood carbohydrate than is currently possible says Mansfield.
Genetic modificationthe genetic modification strategy employed in this study could also be used on other plants like grasses to be used as a new kind of fuel to replace petroleum.
We're a petroleum reliant society says Mansfield. We rely on the same resource for everything from smartphones to gasoline.
We need to diversify and take the pressure off of fossil fuels. Trees and plants have enormous potential to contribute carbon to our society.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of British columbia. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Our activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation are pushing the cycle out of its natural balance adding more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Right now the land and the ocean are taking up almost half of the carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels
or vaporizer pens for individuals who vaporize other substances such as herbs marijuana marijuana oils and hashish waxes.
While the oil-and protein-rich legume is seen as a cash crop in the developed world it remains a valuable sustenance crop in developing nations.
Apart from being a rich source of oil (44 percent to 55 percent) protein (20 percent to 50 percent)
Methane fuels life in pristine chalk riversscientists from Queen Mary University of London have found that naturally high concentrations of the greenhouse gas methane contributes to energy production in chalk rivers in a new study
It's a surprise to find methane is such a big source of energy in these gin-clear waters famed for their luxuriant plant growth said co-author Professor Mark Trimmer Head of the Aquatic Ecology Group at Queen Mary
In the riverbed of the Lambourn the contribution of energy derived from methane to the food web varied seasonally peaking in the summer
We used to think energy from the breakdown of chemicals was only substantial in dark places where photosynthesis is impossible like deep oceans.
and bridge construction would substantially reduce global carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuel consumption. Despite an established forest conservation theory holding that tree harvesting should be minimized strictly to prevent the loss of biodiversity
and to maintain carbon storage capacity the new study shows that sustainable management of wood resources can achieve both goals while also reducing fossil fuel burning.
In the comprehensive study scientists from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&es) and the University of Washington's College of the Environment evaluated a range of scenarios including leaving forests untouched burning wood for energy
and other factors. â#¢About 12%to 19%of annual global fossil fuel consumption would be saved including savings achieved
because scrap wood and unsellable materials could be burned for energy replacing fossil fuel consumption. Wood-based construction consumes much less energy than concrete or steel construction.
Through efficient harvesting and product use more CO2 is saved through the avoided emissions materials and wood energy than is lost from the harvested forest.
This study shows still another reason to appreciate forests --and another reason to not let them be cleared permanently for agriculture said Chadwick Oliver the Pinchot Professor of Forestry
The manufacture of steel concrete and brick accounts for about 16 percent of global fossil fuel consumption.
When the transport and assembly of steel concrete and brick products is considered its share of fossil fuel burning is closer to 20%to 30%Oliver said.
Reductions in fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions from construction will become increasingly critical as demand for new buildings bridges
And the harvested wood will save fossil fuel and CO2 and provide jobs--giving local people more reason to keep the forests.
if higher evaporation rates from the added energy and humidity in the atmosphere is considered. An increase in evaporative drying means that even regions expected to get more rain including important wheat corn
While the benefits are far-reaching gardening in urban settings can also create opportunities for exposure to contaminants such as heavy metals petroleum products and asbestos
Healthy plants convert light to energy via photosynthesis but chlorophyll also emits a fraction of absorbed light as fluorescent glow that is invisible to the naked eye.
#Diamonds are an oils best friend: Research to find the best nanofluid for heat transfera mixture of diamond nanoparticles
and drilling medical therapy and diagnosis biopharmaceuticals air conditioning fuel cells power transmission systems solar cells micro-and nanoelectronic mechanical systems and cooling systems for everything from engines to nuclear reactors.
and found that a very small concentration--one-tenth of a percent by weight--raised the thermal conductivity of the oil by 70 percent at 373 kelvins (about 211 degrees Fahrenheit).
--but perhaps unlike anything else yet seen--takes hold as oil and diamond molecules collide when heated.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors currently account for the largest share of climate pollution.
Beef and lamb account for the largest agricultural emissions relative to the energy they provide. By 2050 estimates indicate that beef
They rigged the field centre's microscopes with smartphones to produce images of the tiny spider's even tinier genitals (using cooking oil from the station's kitchen to make them more translucent) dusted the spider's webs with puffs of corn flour (also from the kitchen) to make them stand out
and serves as our primary energy source. However excessive consumption of sugars (simple carbohydrates) can cause life-style-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
They spend a lot of energy on detoxifying and that comes with a cost: The worms do not reach the same size as other worms
because they spend their energy on ridding themselves of the pesticide the researchers Ph d. student Nicolas Givaudan
In the not adapted worms we saw that their energy reserve of glycogen was used faster.
They also increased their feeding activity possibly to compensate for the increase in energy demand the researchers said.
because they need to spend more energy on detoxifying the researchers say. They also weighed the worms in the experiment
The EU is planning to extend its specific sustainability criteria based on greenhouse gas emissions for biofuels to renewable energy produced from solid biomass.
These criteria are foreseen to require a 60%reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to an alternative fossil fuel.
On one hand the gap may decrease interest in this considerable source of renewable energy in many European countries.
and the needs of agriculture energy water resources finance transport industry trade and cities. In this way REDD+would add value to other initiatives such as agroforestry projects that are being implemented within these sectors
Nearly 1. 6 billion people worldwide depend on forests as a source of food medicines timber and fuel.
which are inherited only from females and nuclear markers which come from males and females. The MITOCHONDRIAL DNA showed that individual bees in one geographic area were more closely related to each other than to bees from other areas.
But the biparental nuclear DNA showed more variation between individuals within an area offering evidence that males traveled
Tim Mousseau a professor of biology and co-director of the Chernobyl and Fukushima Research Initiatives at the University of South carolina has done extensive research in the contaminated area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear facility
It adds to the fuel as well as makes it more likely that catastrophically sized forest fires might start.
and the popcorn was prepared with canola oil that has saturated less fat and no trans-fat compared to the coconut oil bars previously used Overall the healthier items accounted for 9. 2%of total sales a clear indication of demand for these items.
Sales of these items did increase from game to game suggesting increasing interest in these foods.
Structural techniques like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance have worked quite well to help us understand how smaller proteins function Onuchic said.
Each bead carries an intrinsic energy that contributes to the strand's distinct energy landscape
and agriculture to health and energy--the researchers took the so-called CH2011 Scenarios as their starting point for the future development of temperature and precipitation in Switzerland.
and create biochar a highly porous charcoal said project principal investigator Karl Linden professor of environmental engineering.
The energy generated by the sun and transferred to the fiber-optic cable system--similar in some ways to a data transmission line--can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material disinfect pathogens in both feces and urine and produce char.
Additionally the biochar can be burned as charcoal and provides energy comparable to that of commercial charcoal.
Linden is working closely with project co-investigators Professor R. Scott Summers of environmental engineering and Professor Alan Weimer chemical and biological engineering and a team of postdoctoral fellows professionals
While the idea of concentrating solar energy is not new transmitting it flexibly to a customizable location via fiber-optic cables is the really unique aspect of this project.
and solar energy work environmental engineers for waste treatment and stabilization mechanical engineers to build actuators and moving parts and electrical engineers to design control systems Linden said.
Tests have shown that each of the eight fiber-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 watts of energy meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 watts of energy into the reaction chamber said Linden.
In late December tests at CU-Boulder showed the solar energy directed into the reaction chamber could easily boil water
and energy on our team and the Gates Foundation values that Linden said. It is one thing to do research another to screw on nuts and bolts
because we have a high interest in developing countries and expertise in all of the renewable energy technologies as well as sanitation.
and energy cycles and yet do not attract the interest levels that tropical rainforests do.
Grazing fuel and foodapproximately 20%of the world's population depend on these areas of land for their livelihoods including their use for grazing fuel and food.
and therefore less fuel to produce the same amount of beef. The improvement in the efficiency of production has meaningful societal benefits.
Additionally boosters substituted canola oil for coconut oil bars in the popcorn and swapped the cheese in the nachos eliminating trans fat from the products.
Before fossil fuels grass and ingenuity were the fuels for the Mongols and the cultures around them said lead author Neil Pederson a tree-ring scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Energy flows from the bottom of an ecosystem up the ladder to human society. Even today many people in Mongolia live just like their ancestors did.
Even those who are genetically susceptible can at least delay the onset of the disease by favouring vegetable oils oil-based spreads
As humans burn fossil fuels dose crops with chemical fertilizers and dispose of manure from livestock they introduce extra nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil air and water.
#Biofuel-to-hydrocarbon conversion technology licensedvertimass LLC a California-based start-up company has licensed an Oak ridge National Laboratory technology that directly converts ethanol into a hydrocarbon blend-stock for use in transportation fuels.
The ORNL technology offers a new pathway to biomass-derived renewable fuels that can lower greenhouse gas emissions and decrease U s. reliance on foreign sources of oil.
Vertimass is pleased very to be partnering with ORNL to commercialize this revolutionary technology that can broaden the market for alternative fuels said Vertimass chairman William Shopoff.
We see this technology as a significant step in moving the United states toward energy independence. The technology developed by ORNL's Chaitanya Narula Brian Davison
The resulting liquid can be blended at various concentrations into gasoline diesel and jet fuels without negatively affecting engine performance.
After mixing with petroleum-derived fuels the blend-stock does not require modifications to the existing distribution infrastructure.
The blend-stock can be mixed into gasoline at higher concentrations than ethanol's current limit of 10 percent;
plus it can be added to diesel and jet fuel. It's completely consumer-transparent. Vertimass anticipates that the ORNL technology will be in demand by existing corn-based ethanol production plants as well as new refineries coming online that aim to convert non-food crops such as switchgrass
Preliminary ORNL analysis in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado shows the catalytic technology could be retrofitted into existing bio-alcohol refineries at various stages of ethanol purification.
The ORNL research was supported by DOE's Office of Energy efficiency and Renewable Energy. Initial funds were from the ORNL Laboratory Directed Research and development and Technology Innovation programs and from the Bioenergy Science Center
which is supported by the U s. DOE Office of Science. Vertimass LCC is based in Irvine Calif. The mission of Vertimass LLC is to develop
and improve energy security and domestic economies. Commercialization will lead to the widespread use of proprietary Vertimass technology for low cost production of sustainable transportation fuels for aircraft and heavy and light duty vehicles from multiple sources of biomass on a large scale.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Oak ridge National Laboratory. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
and have seeds with less protein and greater oil concentration. The new varieties tend to mature later within these maturity groups
and oil for human food animal feed and other products global rates of yield increases for the crop will need to keep up with demand in the future.
otherwise come from fossil fuels. A global network of research farms--known as farm platforms--can evaluate the economic and environmental benefits of these
A study led by Joshua Pearce of Michigan Technological University has shown that making your own plastic 3d printer filament from milk jugs uses less energy--often a lot less than recycling milk jugs conventionally.
which collects and processes plastic locally turning milk jugs into filament at home uses about 3 percent less energy.
Then the energy savings skyrocket to 70-80 percent. And recycling your own milk jugs uses 90 percent less energy than making virgin plastic from petroleum.
Pearce also compared the cost of making your own filament with buying it. Filament is retailing for between $36
The researchers identified three distinct dietary patterns interpreted as prudent (vegetables fruits oils water as a beverage whole grain cereals poultry fibre rich bread) Western
In a previous large randomized controlled trial called e-BP (Electronic Blood pressure) and published in JAMA Dr. Green showed that
Combining the e-Care and e-BP studies which were both based on the Chronic Care Model.
Some 32 million students eat school meals every day for many low-income students up to half their daily energy intake is from school meals.
#Amazons canopy a patchwork quilt of chemicals generated by plantsin many ways plants act as chemical factories using energy from sunlight to produce carbon-based energy
But the emerging standard global food supply described by the study also consists of energy-dense foods that have risen to global fame more recently like soybean sunflower oil and palm oil.
Rising incomes in developing countries for example have enabled more consumers to include larger quantities of animal products oils and sugars in their diets.
But hopeful trends are also apparent as in Northern europe where evidence suggests that consumers are tending to buy more cereals and vegetables and less meat oil and sugar.
#Methane leaks from palm oil wastewater are a climate concernin recent years palm oil production has come under fire from environmentalists concerned about the deforestation of land in the tropics to make way for new palm plantations.
Now there is a new reason to be concerned about palm oil's environmental impact according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.
An analysis published Feb 26 in the journal Nature Climate Change shows that the wastewater produced during the processing of palm oil is a significant source of heat-trapping methane in the atmosphere.
and using it as a renewable energy source. The methane bubbling up from a single palm oil wastewater lagoon during a year is roughly equivalent to the emissions from 22000 passenger vehicles in the United states the analysis found.
This year global methane emissions from palm oil wastewater are expected to equal 30 percent of all fossil fuel emissions from Indonesia where widespread deforestation for palm oil production has endangered orangutans.
This is a largely overlooked dimension of palm oil's environmental problems said lead author Philip Taylor a postdoctoral researcher at CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR.
The industry has become a poster child for agriculture's downsides but capturing wastewater methane leaks for energy would be a step in the right direction.
The global demand for palm oil has spiked in recent years as processed food manufacturers have sought an alternative to trans fats.
For now the carbon footprint of cutting down forests to make way for palm plantations dwarfs the greenhouse gases coming from the wastewater lagoons.
as long as palm oil is produced the researchers said. However the climate impact of the leaking methane could be mitigated by capturing the gas
and it can produce renewable electricity at a cost that's competitive with traditional fuels the authors said.
The amount of methane biogas that went uncollected from palm oil wastewater lagoons last year alone could have met a quarter of Malaysia's electricity needs.
Tapping into that unused fuel supply could yield both financial and environmental benefits the authors said.
Capturing methane at wastewater lagoons could be encouraged by making it a requirement before palm oil products can be certified as sustainable the authors said.
Fancher and Taylor were doing research in Costa rica where palm oil production is spreading when Fancher became curious about how the oil was being processed.
She has a wastewater background Taylor said. She ended up doing an honors thesis on palm oil agriculture and wastewater emissions.
This paper is an extension of that thinking. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Colorado at Boulder.
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