"Pilot projects bury carbon dioxide in basalt." Report from Nature News & Comment_26 July 2013

 JEFF TOLLEFSON writes in Nature

"By early August, scientists will have pumped 1,000 tonnes of pure carbon dioxide into porous rock far below the northwestern United States. The goal is to find a permanent home for the carbon dioxide generated by human activities.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, began the injections into the Columbia River Basalt formation near the town of Wallula on 17 July. The rock contains pores created as many as 16 million years ago, when magma flowed across what is now the Columbia River Basin. Bubbles of CO2 migrated to the edges of the magma as it cooled, forming layers of holes sandwiched between solid rock (see 'Rock steady').

In pumping emissions back underground, “we are returning the carbon dioxide from whence it came”, says Pete McGrail, an environ­mental engineer at the PNNL who is heading the experiment, part of a larger energy-department programme on ways to sequester carbon."

KEEP-UP THE GOOD WORK LADS.
ON THE STORAGE SIDE OF THE CO2 OUTPUT ACCOUNTANCY (IN) BALANCE THE FUTURE APPEARS TO LIE IN SUCH INITIATIVES.

I WILL POST AGAIN ON REDUCTIONS ON THE PRODUCTION SIDE OF CO2 - NOT AS GOOD AS HOPED!




Read the full article freely available in The Journal Nature entitled  "Pilot projects bury carbon dioxide in basalt : Nature News & Comment" (pdf).

Re-inventing the wheel? Inconsistent results? Failure to push all the way through and LEGISLATE?

Original title and full article , 3rd June,COLOGNE from The Economist print edition with pertinent comments, all online in the Science &Technology pages, cf ref. 1 below.

"Cleaner diesel engines
Pouring water on troubled oils To make engines cleaner, add H2O," (an old idea)



Motivation for action

"Research by James Corbett of the University of Delaware estimates that soot from ships’ diesels contributes to 60,000 deaths from heart and lung disease every year."

The problem
Water & Oil do not mix naturally.

Solution

The current innovative solution reported in The Economist is due to Reinhard Strey of the University of Cologne. He uses surfactants- to a class of chemical substances which, usually in small quantities, modify the interfacial tension existing between different substances, here, H20 and Oil. Dish washing liquids are the best known household surfactants which work in this principle. removing oil and grease from our dinner plate.

Apparently many attempts to improve combustion using water and surfactants failed.
Now, Dr Strey after extensive research eventually lighted on a mixture of oleic acid (a fatty acid found in various vegetable oils) and nitrogen-containing compounds called amines. This mixture dissolves readily in diesel fuel and binds water to it without any need for stirring. The water droplets themselves can be as small as a nanometre (a billionth of a metre) across. That they are so small helps stabilise the emulsion.
A very important feature of this invention, worth repeating, is that the emulsion created is stable. The result it is claimed is, in effect, a liquid sponge, and means the mixture can be stored indefinitely, like ordinary diesel, without risk of separation.
When the Oil-Surfactant-H2O emulsion is burned, is the near-complete abolition of soot, and a reduction of up to 80% in nitrogen-oxide emissions. The surfactant itself also burns without creating emissions beyond water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
The next stage is to test the mixture in the real world. MTU, a German engine-builder, (Germany's Rolls-Royce) is now looking into the matter.

Will this innovation be adopted and made law on The Seas or is this just more Eau de Cologne to mask the stink?

REFERENCE:

The Economist,  3rd of June 2010 Science & Technology

Dust-up your act, From Coal to Flour, And All things Small & Beautiful.

First Check out your Material:

Comparitive sizes of airborne particles such as dust, pollen, bacteria, virus and many more have been compiled by Engineeringtoolbox. Industrial examples found are coal, carbohydrates, tobacco smoke and many more. Among the numerous natural substances are pollen, virus and carbohydrates, etc. Why mention carbohydrates? Read-on.

Clean Rooms-High Standards - :
Tough Acts to Meet - particulate standards!

Some Back-ground to Dust Control:[Link]

One small thing leads to another, not just a neurological fact, a synapse.

In fact, I had recently been working on a problem entitled "Dust Control," carbohydrates actually.

However as I delved into the subject, I found that a much more appropriate term, is "dust confinement". The latter, not only satisfies both the difference in interpretation between french and english (anglo-saxon) of the word “control”, but also specifies, in this particular case, the client's aim to increase yield by putting all the material into the product or at least into the packaging.

I had given, myself an excruciating delay, and my industrial past appeared to be catching up with me. "Déja vu".

“Déja Vu!” from metallurgical dust and fumes during my 12years at the local factory here, “Les Acieries d'Imphy”; part of the Euro-Group of special alloys and stainless steel melting and refining plants”, supplemented more recently by car exhaust beneath my window from the local bypass. Now to crown things, a coal reserve found locally, 250MT no less, has come up for exploitation!

Carbohydrate powder confinement?: I had submitted a pretty off-focus (poor) piece of work to a pretty poorly defined question (i.e. one for insider specialists rather than for a general process engineer & scientist) but had the satisfaction of having made a contribution, on time and had learned in the process, although not enough to my liking.

Motivated by calm resolution after the intellectual storm, the brainstorm, to which I had subjected myself, motivated by residual dissatisfaction, by perception, a glimpse of some growing need, like an ominously dark cloud gathering, I set out to put some value on my initial effort to ramp –up, from scratch may I add.

I headed off to the local library, equipped with my hand calculator intending to get some orders of magnitude straightened out: surfaces, volumes, ratios of surface to volume for heat and chemical kinetics; aerodynamic (aerosol) particle terminal velocities etc.

We have the Berkeley 1970's lecture series; mechanics, physics, waves & optics, statistical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics in 5 Volumes, great stuff, and a competitor to Feynman’s famous series. For my purposes, the micron particle range 10-500 microns were to be “confined”. This took me back to my high school and early university mechanics.

In the back of my mind I felt this could also be a useful prelude to the more fashionable nano-family. Laziness or intelligence whichever one prefers, led me to head for the Internet terminal section of the library. Eureka, I was rewarded far beyond my expectations, ashes to ashes; let me share this lucky strike with you:

Micron Particles.

-Volumes, surface areas table, orders of magnitude, Surf./Vol. etc.
:[Link]
-The Aerodynamic particle:[Link] Solved Problems :[Link]
-Terminal Settling Velocity:[Link] Solved Problems :[Link]

Particle Formation:
(Grinding, Fossil-Fuel-Fired Boilers, Municiple and Medical Waste Incinerators):[Link]

Environmental Science Main Reference, more?:[Link]


(Acknowledgement to the US Environment Protection Agency (US-EPA) for the clear simplicity of their contribution to some basics of Environmental Science, thanking them for their continuing interest and wishing them all sucess in their efforts in practice and practise, in essence, Innovation )


((CARBOHYDRATES:I have opened this parenthesis due to my chance (serendipidous) reminder of an interesting link to my previous entry on photosynthesis. Carbohydrates are the main energy source for the human body. Chemically, carbohydrates are organic molecules in which carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen bond together in the ratio: Cx(H2O)y, where x and y are whole numbers that differ depending on the specific carbohydrate to which we are referring.

The chemical metabolism of the sugar glucose is shown below:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 --> 6CO2 + 6H2O + energy
which is the opposite reaction to that of photosynthesis refered to in my previous post. "Photosynthesis is an endothermic reaction very roughly:

6CO2 + 6H20 + energy --> C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2

Energy is supplied in daylight from the Sun with the further help of a catalyst, namely, chlorophyll.

Acknowledgement and link is visionlearning )) Close the carbohydrate/photosynthesis parenthesis.

WORK in HAND & Glenn MacDonald's from Theory to Practice June06 post

The image (left) was taken by ESA managed satellite Proba under the Earth Observation programme.Earth Observation programme

I have tried, specifically, to avoid the topic of Coal,almost the most used energy source on earth. and have concentrated on much needed weblog clean-up & crawling, if not ramping-up the weblog learning curve. This led me to acknowledge the pertinence of Adsense and in so doing justify at more length my decision to recommend it, throught the referral plan. I posted this further down the the WLog, under the heading "Innovation - Firing on all Cylinders started in June 06. (Downs & unders; not to be confused with the Aussie's "down-under."-with the World Cup Rugby, France 2007 approaching difficult to avoid refs. to southern hemisphere, one step from the Antartic and its importance in the climate engine ! ) I also added more thought reminders to the "Pensieve", Thought-recipient or Block Note, for later sifting. cf earlier post -SCROLL -DOWN.

OPEN-SKY COAL MINE

"The European Union must maintain its leading position
in combating climate change, ensure global
competitiveness for European industry, and deliver
long-term security of the energy supply. The European
Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil
Fuel Power Plants has been set up to play a crucial
role in enabling Europe to fulfil this commitment,
with the development and deployment of new competitive
power plant options over the next fifteen
years." (ref. A vision for zero emission fosil fuel power plants

Aug. 2006 European Union)

The future of Coal, vision from MIT ,Boston, USA. [Link].

OPEN-SKY COAL MINE

I intended to avoid the topic of coal,
As a man afraid of "facing" the dole
Money, monies the man on this payroll,
China! Aussie's too, what's the toll?
Coal,

The most used, so abused source of energy
In much of our blue planets territory,
Mine, down-under, beneath our feet,

Can't you just touch, the feel of its heat.
Coal!

This could be, well.., the name of this street?

Mine, down-under, beneath our feet,
Not for long, in this Newfoundland
Sounds of Nova Scotia-Caledonia's band

Coal!

Wash the Pug! Close the rail-carriage window,
Children, Tunnel ahead! Heads in, bow!
Getting nearer, nearer, to our chosen home yard
Open-sky mine project, -Jeune Garde.

Coal!

Route 58, from. Sancerre's vineyards scene

Fond memories of a mining Pole, La Machine

In South Nivernais, Lucenay
Silly cause or Silicoses? Cossaye

Coal!

Glasgow-black and Auld Reeckie lang gone
The cities fathers ruled Sulphur out-right
Crying -"Grime's a Crime,
against Humanity"! , prose?
Shaking-off smog’s mildew -as a rose.

Coal!

(The song continued long after, "Acid rain, acid rain"
At the time this was a well known refrain
Today from space 5 tonnes of Sulphur, let's sprinkle
Over carbon dioxide concentrations, a grave to kindle)

Coal!

Victor Hugo, Dumas & Zola would be proud
No Persian Letters these, Alexander endowed.
Buildings, monuments, sandblasted bright
No gas candles for them, but LED- light.
from Coal!

Its focus now on this new match

Shall we choose the tourist trade today?
Working mines as in bygone days, the long way.
Or shall innovation & invention,make their mark,
In some sophisticated scientific way, as the quark?
Through some subtle eco mix, a trail

Coal!

By non-friction super-conductive rail, race
Or pneumatic closed dust-confining tube-ace
Bring temptation's call, this coalface
To the devils melting-place

Coal!

I did not mention at any time before
Our devils burning desire is therefore
Some thermal combined harvester's drum
For Heat & Electricity to make a planet turn
Coal,

As in ancient times, black as night's mantle

Miner and mineral, indistinguishable

Memories of a Mining Pole, "La Machine"

In Never's "pastures green"
Land of "the waters still"

Psalm 23, Refreshing chill,
s' Nuclear & Coal alike.

-As the friendly greeting goes, in the heydays & hay days of coal,
"Lang may yur lum reek!" -meaning long-life and good health, ce qui signifie en français; longue vie, bonne santé. The tradition of welcoming a New Year first footer with a lump of coal as a sign of good wishes also is more debateable with regard to the global performance of coal exploitation and effective use in the current context of climate change and cheap & and easy access to energy sources.

(I shall try to remain as poetic as possible in "our project" of the century Open-Sky Coal mine with Thermal powered combined thermal electric power "plant" 1st draft 16 Oct. 06 ) and needless to say as helpful as possible eg. =>
PS. Add to mining: "Re-Investment in Renewables" & "Carbon Chemistry" with the usual ramifications, socio-cultural-economic... to use a bio/agro analogy.
TECHNICAL FIRST:
NB. FROM "BLACK to GREEN" CLEANING COAL -How it works.

Why are we waiting? Natures first response.

"The European Union must maintain its leading position
in combating climate change, ensure global
competitiveness for European industry, and deliver
long-term security of the energy supply. The European
Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil
Fuel Power Plants has been set up to play a crucial
role in enabling Europe to fulfil this commitment,
with the development and deployment of new competitive
power plant options over the next fifteen
years." (ref. A vision for zero emission fosil fuel power plants, Aug. 2006 )

Post Scriptum: I am lead to believe (media TV A2 report) that immediate current best choice will be exploitation (locally) of Frances forestry (renewable energy) as a heat source in many small towns & villages?