As the leader organism on earth we have to face lot of environmental problems. Most of these problems are due to the results of our unsustainable activities. As we know, among these problems, the global warming is the major environmental problem. The only way to resolve this problem is reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into atmosphere. Most scientists are give their attention to carbon dioxide gas in this field. Carbon dioxide is a natural gas which is essential gas for life on the earth. The earth’s carbon cycle is responsible for control the carbon dioxide in air naturally. Mainly the forests and the ocean are act as the main carbon dioxide sinks. But unfortunately these forests and ocean can’t handle the portion of carbon dioxide emitted by human activities. Also forest cover reduction is also an another reason. Today earth’s atmosphere carbon dioxide concentration is near to the 400ppm so, we can expect the peak carbon dioxide level as soon. This warming is forced us to reduce Co2 emission into atmosphere eventually. As a science lover you must also like to know the modern scientific findings to decrease the Co2 emissions. Therefore, this science mirror post is dedicated to modern scientifically proven ways to decrease this greenhouse gas emission.
Mainly two scientific ways to reduce carbon dioxide emission into atmosphere
Rapid Mineralization of Carbon Dioxide
Making fuels
Rapid Mineralization of Carbon dioxide
The carbonate minerals are sable minerals occurring in nature. Professor Martin Stute of Columbia University and team were able to convert tons of carbon dioxide gas in to carbonate minerals. They did this research around Hellisheidi power plant in Hengill. They mixed 254 tons of carbon dioxide with water and pump through basaltic lavas along with 20 tons of hydrogen sulpide. After two years according to their paper almost 95% of pumped carbon dioxide was converted into carbonate minerals. The calcium, iron and magnesium ions provided to mineralization from the basalts. This is a good method to capture carbon dioxide due to the carbonate minerals do less impact on environment than the carbon dioxide gas. The research paper published in 2016
This concept is known as the geosequestration introduced by Professor Ray Frost, from Queensland University of Technology. The professor defines this concept as,
“The concept of geosequestration involves liquifying carbon dioxide and depositing it into mineral zones below the earth’s surface where chemical reactions of the liquid CO2 with minerals stabilise it in solid form”,
Making fules.
The natural CO2 sinker, Plants are able to convert carbon dioxide into profitable sugar using the organic catalysts known as enzymes. By Mimicking the natural environment scientist are tried to make artificial leaf. Researches in U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Chicago, used Nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenide as a electro catalysts for reduce carbon dioxide. This catalyst is able to deduce CO2 ìnto carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is also a environmental pollutant. But according to researches carbon dioxide can be easialyconvert into profitable fuel. The research paper can be found at science
There are lots of researches with catalysts for convert carbon dioxide back into fuels. So, it is a good challenge to accept find an exact efficient way to convert this greenhouse gas into fuels. A good example is cobalt-porphyrin catalyst. Professor Marc Koper and PhD student Jing Shen Leiden, Universiteit were used this catalyst to covert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and methane. The research paper was published at nature
In this fuel making way the biofuel synthesis is also a new good trend for the carbon dioxide capture. Yilin Hu at the Ayala School of Biological Sciences found that nitrogenase enzyme alone in the bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii and directly use this bacterium to convert CO2 to CO. due to a bacterium it can be also used for large scale production.
This catalyst is known as the biocatalyst which is safer than the other chemical catalysts.
Individually it is responsible of all of us to reduce carbon foot print. But It is difficult to reach this kind of concepts in developed countries. Therefore scientist have a responsible for find a proper solution for control this major green hose gas in atmosphere.
