Global warming. It is the cancer eating away at our ecosystem and environment as a whole. It has been there for longer than we can estimate slowly capitalizing on our carbon footprint, and its impact will have greater consequences than we are willing to accept. It is imperative that we do every bit possible to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in our air primarily, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Scientists have given us some novel means of reducing the amount of these greenhouse gases around us, but how viable are DIY methods for reducing global warming.
It is commonplace how easily we humans encroach on the flora and fauna around us. Yet they are the ones who are integral in sustaining the balance in a healthy, green environment. Plant life has been a natural filter for our atmosphere, utilizing the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere for its daily life cycle. Scientists have taken example from this naturally occurring phenomenon and tried imbibing it in more advanced ideas for reducing the carbon dioxide in our air, thus reducing global warming.
Image Source: www.iisd.org
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has unanimously way back in 2014 that the greenery around us is crucial in reducing the carbon footprint that modern society is leaving behind. Plants utilize the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. In the process, they produce energy as well which can be stored, thereby producing a natural alternative to burning fossil fuels for energy. This novel ‘two birds, one stone’ idea, can bring a true reform in the radical climate change. The scientists though, aim to burn or process the plants while they utilize the CO2, to produce energy, and then capturing any CO2 produced as a by-product and storing it to share with the plants.
Image Source: www.pnas.org
This sort of biomass technology, implemented by the Kemper Power Plant in Mississippi, is the first of its kind. As the energy produced from the experiment would generate energy on an unprecedented scale. Therefore, we also have to understand that the experiment conducted is also on a large scale of CO2. The Washington Post reported a few days ago that in a large-scale trial, a plant in Decatur is utilizing 1.2 million tons of CO2 created from fermentation, and is storing it away underground to rinse and repeat the cycle.
Image Source: www.desmogblog.com
More than the viability of BECC, what is threatening its potential is the amount of bureaucratic scandal plaguing the efforts. Reports of the funds becoming a burden to bear, compared to the throughput energy efficiency. An experiment of this large scale has a lot of untested parameters on an unprecedented scale. Besides these reports by the New York Times, there are unfortunate whispers that the project may not be completely helpful as it is bound to cost some energy and create some carbon emissions of its own.
Image Source: www.washingtonpost.com
The burning question, no pun intended, on everyone’s mind is, if the concept of carbon-free coal power is a myth? Truth be told, by large it is. Many a large name has invested billions in the field of producing coal energy without adding to our carbon footprint. However, given the scale of these kind of plants, efforts have always been cost-ineffective and failed miserably. The other worry with funding BECC, which is our hope of replacing the hackneyed concept of carbon-free coal-power, is that it raises the question of capturing large sections of land that can be simply used to add to the green canopy on earth, or better still, for food crops.
Image Source: www.netdna-cdn.com
CONCLUSION:
Truth is, we wasted a lot of time denying the fact that our modern lifestyles are having a gruesome impact on our environment. The tales of civilizations that have poisoned their own well in the effort to fly too close to the Sun, can be found in fiction frequently. What remains to be seen is if we are willing to forget the profit to be made and invest freely in saving the planet instead by reducing global warming. Easier said than done.
Image Source: www.pvportal.pl