Carbon Dioxide | World Tech Today

Arctic meltdown to expose earth to a massive carbon dioxide store

Apr 24, 2015 by Karla Fetrow Leave a Comment

The University of Georgia – As the earth is warming; the Arctic meltdown is all set to expose the massive carbon dioxide store that can threaten the sustenance of life on earth. According to Aron Stubbins, a researcher at the University Of Georgia Skidaway Institute Of Oceanography, the ancient carbon is until now locked in the Arctic permafrost. The study reports were published in the Geophysical Research Letters.

After staying dormant for around thousands of years, now due to global warming the carbon dioxide is slowly leaking into the atmosphere. Even though the discussion of reducing the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere has been doing rounds for the past couple of decades, no consideration ever was given to this Arctic CO2 storehouse.

Once the carbon starts releasing into the atmosphere, it can immediately bring a drastic change in the climate and the consequences can be quite dreadful. The frozen soil in the Arctic region carries the major amount of this carbon store. This soil is the remnants of animals and plants that died around 20,000 years ago or more. This organic material could not decompose as it was frozen permanently for years together.

Decomposition of Organic Material Can Cause Carbon Release

In its frozen state, the organic material is protected from the bacteria that otherwise in warmer conditions immediately start the process of decomposition of organic material. Hence, now when there will be Arctic meltdown the organic material will be exposed to the bacteria, which will cause the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in higher amounts.

The U.S Army released a film on the Distant Early Warning System known as DEW line in 1958. It was an educational film that depicted the importance of the DEW line, which was built in the form of radar sites in the North American Arctic. The move was taken to alert Washington to the impending attack from Soviet during the cold war days.

The opening lines of that film described the exact condition of the Arctic circles, as it is today, desolate, remote and savage. However, no one could foresee the problem of carbon release it can cause in the future.

Artificial Photosynthesis using sunlight to generate carbon dioxide can make environment cleaner and greener

Apr 17, 2015 by Karla Fetrow 2 Comments

Princeton University – The University of California Berkeley and the US Department of Energy researchers revealed that artificial photosynthesis can prove incredibly help in keeping the environment clean and green. The researchers created an artificial forest using E.Coli and several other types of bacteria. They produced green energy by developing a system that is almost similar to photosynthesis in which the plants prepare food from water and carbon dioxide using sunlight.

According to Chris Chang, expert catalysts for carbon-neutral energy conversions at the UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab this invention can prove to be a revolutionary innovation in energy. The invention of artificial photosynthesis is expected to cut down the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere drastically.

Chang has said that this invention is a leap towards the future that is expected to contribute immensely by changing the fundamentals of oil and chemical industry. This in due course of time will make possible production of fuels and chemicals using renewable methods thereby putting a full stop to the process of extraction of fuel from below the earth.

Blueprint of the Leaves

Three years ago, the Wired had reported that some engineers from the Princeton University had prepared a blueprint of leaves to prepare a better solar cell design that enhanced efficiency. The blueprint copied the natural leaves with their folds and wrinkles thereby increasing the production of electricity by 47 percent than was earlier possible with the design of flat solar cells.

Process of Artificial Photosynthesis

Chang explained that in natural photosynthesis, the leaves harvest solar energy, and the reduced carbon dioxide is combined with water for synthesizing molecular products to finally form biomass. In the artificial photosynthesis process, the nanowires are used as a replacement for the leaves to harvest the solar energy and forward electrons to the bacteria. Synthesis of different types of value-added and targeted chemical products is carried out by reducing carbon dioxide and combining it with water.

Scientists claim Venus once flooded by an ocean of liquid CO2

Dec 31, 2014 by Charles Omedo Leave a Comment

A new research has led space scientists to believe that Venus could once have been flooded with an ocean of carbon dioxide – not necessarily in liquid form, but in gaseous form, and this could have been responsible for the hollow carved out on its surface.

Being the second planet in our sun nearest to the Earth, Venus is sometimes referred to as the Earth’s sister planet, and it is much closer to the Earth than Mars itself. Venus utilizes 224.7 days to orbit the sun, and considering the fact that its bright light makes it visible in the Earth’s night sky, anyone can see it from the proper angle on a favorable night.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system with a temperature of 863 degrees Fahrenheit, and slightly hotter than Mercury which is closest to the sun with a temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists are now of the opinion that some million years ago, the combined heat of atmospheric pressures produced a supercritical state of carbon dioxide that could have melted substances into liquids while also making it gaseous in some form.

According to Dima Bolmatov, a theoretical physicist leading the research, “Presently, the atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide, 96.5 percent by volume,” and this makes scientists to opine that the clusters of CO2 would have resembled soap bubbles.

Carbon dioxide is considered a trace gas on Earth where it is in the concentration of 0.04% within the atmosphere. It occurs naturally and made up of oxygen atoms bonded to a single atom of carbon – and it could also be given off as well by other creatures. It is found responsible for global warming and causes the melting of ice caps, flooding, and natural storms as well as heat waves.