Lake Kivu gas: Turning an explosion risk into a power source. More than 1,000 people died in 1986 when a lake in Cameroon released a cloud of CO2 that suffocated entire villages. A much larger lake in Rwanda - with two million people living nearby - is also at risk of eruption, but plans are afoot to make it safer. In the early evening on Lake Kivu, along Rwanda's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, lights bob on the surface of the water.
They're fishermen's lanterns hanging off wooden boats to attract herring. Lake Kivu's fish are a crucial source of food for the two million people who live around the perimeter. But there's something else below the surface of the water besides fish. Deep at the bottom of the lake, about 1,000 feet (300m) down, Kivu's water is heavy with dissolved gas. "It's a highly volcanic area and much of the CO2 enters the lake from the volcanic rock beneath it," says Professor Brian Moss from the University of Liverpool. Bacteria in the lake then convert some of the CO2 into methane. Fizzy drink Sucking gas Risks. Melting glaciers leave new lakes in their path. 14.09.12 - When glaciers melt, new lakes are formed. Can we take advantage of this? An EPFL student has studied the possibility of using these natural reservoirs to help boost hydroelectric power production in the canton Valais – and thus help Switzerland as it transitions into a future without nuclear power.
The great glaciers of the Alps are melting. Several climate change scenarios, some of which are based on an average temperature increase of +4°C, predict their complete disappearance by the end of this century. As they retreat, the glaciers uncover cavities; these fill with meltwater, becoming lakes. The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is funding a research project on the risks and possibilities of these new mountain lakes. Anton Schleiss, director of EPFL’s Hydraulic Constructions Laboratory, is participating in the project. The Rhone glacier is visibly melting Over the past ten years, the Rhone glacier has lost 6% of its mass. Up the watershed. The Case of the Vegetarian Jet Engine: How GE Jet Engines Running on Vegetable Oil Mix Broke the Sound Barrier. Turning Carbon Dioxide Into a Green Fuel. A research team is working on turning carbon dioxide into methanol to use later as a green fuel.
The researchers from the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF), led by the chemist Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing, have developed a new system that produces methanol from CO2 and hydrogen. They hope to eventually be able to harness the power of CO2 on a large scale and integrate it back into the utilization cycle as a sustainable form of energy production. In order to produce methanol, Krossing’s doctoral candidates combine the carbon dioxide with hydrogen in a high pressure environment, a process known as hydrogenolysis.Doctoral candidate Elias Frei has already been conducting research on methanol for several years.
“Our goal is to develop new catalyst systems and methods for accelerating the chemical reaction even more,” explains Frei.The researchers at FMF use the metal oxides copper, zinc, and zirconium dioxide as catalysts, enabling the reaction to happen at lower temperatures. Chemicals and biofuel from wood biomass. Most commonly used raw materials in butanol production have so far been starch and cane sugar. In contrast to this, the starting point in the Aalto University study was to use only lignocellulose, otherwise known as wood biomass, which does not compete with food production.
Another new breakthrough in the study is to successfully combine modern pulp - and biotechnology. Finland's advanced forest industry provides particularly good opportunities to develop this type of bioprocesses. Wood biomass is made up of three primary substances: cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Of these three, cellulose and hemicellulose can be used as a source of nutrition for microbes in bioprocesses. Along with cellulose, the Kraft process that is currently used in pulping produces black liquor, which can already be used as a source of energy.
It is not, however, suitable for microbes. In accordance with EU requirements, all fuel must contain 10 per cent biofuel by 2020. Scientist Develops Self-Sustaining Solar Reactor That Produces Clean Hydrogen Fuel. Hydrogen is a fuel that has seemingly limitless potential, but scientists have only been able to produce it from fossil fuels, like natural gas.
That is, until now. A doctoral student in mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware has designed a new type of reactor that produces hydrogen using nothing more than concentrated sunlight, zinc oxide, and water. And best of all, the zinc oxide used by the reactor can be reused, meaning that once the reactor is up and running, it would be self-sustaining. Doctoral candidate Erik Koepf designed a large cylindrical reactor that is made of heat-insulating ceramic materials. With some help from gravity, zinc oxide powder is fed into the system from 15 hoppers, and concentrated sunlight enters through a quartz window and the aperture ring. This week, Koepf will bring his reactor to Switzerland, where it will be tested for the first time at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Via geek.com photos © University of Delaware.
280na3. Melting glaciers key to greater reliance on hydroelectric power? - Physorg.