A Green Degree Blog: New Angles On Sustainability

May 13th 2012

Hypersolar Believes It Can Make Natural Gas Practically Green

Hypersolar is an interesting and thought-provoking solar company, whose main goal is to bring clean energy to the masses through the clever and sometimes ingenious use of science and technology. Though a relatively small name in the big world of solar energy (I hadn’t heard of them until now), they harbour some big ideas and have introduced some powerful technology into the mix.

They initially hit the industry running with their creation of a Hypersolar ‘layer’ for solar panels, which could halve the amount of individual solar cells needed, whilst upping their output by an impressive 400%. This layer would replace the traditional glass screen atop the cells, and would focus solar radiation onto rows of cells, therefore intensifying the light and producing extra juice. A neat invention to say the least, although I haven’t heard much else about the product.

This time round, they’ve decided to combine their solar expertise with an area of energy production which I, and no doubt many others, did really not expect. They hope that, with their new solar cell systems, they can imitate nature and the beautiful complexity of photosynthesis in order to create ‘clean’ and ‘renewable’ natural gas. Clean I hear you say, that ain’t right.

By mimicing plants, the team plans to split water into its component parts, hydrogen and oxygen. This hydrogen is then combined with carbon dioxide, presumably they hope from the atmosphere itself, to create methane, a prime constituent of natural gas. As this carbon is from the air around us, not only does it suck CO2 from our dirty atmosphere, it then uses this to produce more fuel for us to burn. As it only requires water alongside this, it can be labelled renewable by the company.

The team also highlight that they believe the natural gas future is a very real one, but that the environmental faults of extracting and creating it is both dirty and expensive. Therefore this technology kills two birds with one stone, making the environment happier whilst still allowing a less radical switch to a NG dominated economy.

Posted at 10:01am and tagged with: natural gas, Hypersolar, solar, energy, carbon, dioxide, methane, photosynthesis, nature, beautiful, apes, smart, technology, science, power, global warming,.

May 9th 2012

Carbon PPM Hits A New High, & Natural Gas Is Replacing Coal - This Seems Strange?

Coal has always been the number one fossil fuel in our society’s list of burnable sunlight, which of course it simply is, which also begs the question why is solar taking so long to kick off? Sorry, going off on a tangent here, I think I’ll reserve that for another post. Back to the main subject.

Coal is by far the most worrisome and dirty of the fossil fuels, although its brother oil is not to be easily beaten in that respect, and has been utilised for centuries to provide electricity to our lights and heat our homes. Throughout this time, a frankly astounding amount of CO2 has been emitted into the surrounding environment and atmosphere, warming our planet and screwing with multiple climatic, biological and ocean-atmosphere interactions and feedbacks which we’re only just beginning to experience.

Only recently, the Mauna Loa carbon-detection research station in Hawaii, sitting high atop the largest volcano in the world, measured an atmospheric ppm value just shy of 400; that’s a massive figure. In fact this is the highest recorded atmospheric carbon content in the history of measurements, indicating that despite our best, and sometimes admirably successful attempts at culling emissions, it’s still doing its own thing.

This of course can be explained by a few important factors, most predominantly the rise of the BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, who are pumping out carbon at a rate equivalent to the peak of our Western expansions, with many more countries joining them. Alongside this, the simple physical fact that carbon sticks around in the atmosphere for at least half a century, means that a good portion of the continued increase we are seeing is due to pollution spewed out within the past several years - even if we cut carbon emission to zero as of this moment globally, it would still keep going for up until past 2020.

So I find it strange that, in reading an article recommended via Grist today, and with the knowledge that natural gas, that lesser-of-two-evils fossil fuel (or perhaps not) is taking the energy world by storm, we still haven’t fully grasped this ‘green’ concept.

Natural gas has been becoming increasingly popular in many developed nations who are trying to curb their carbon emissions through the cutting back of coal and oil burning, as it is not only just as readily available, but technically, and I emphasise technically, emits less carbon than coal when burnt. This is the reason that countries are adopting a more natural gas-orientated energy mix in future policy, as they see it as a way of securing stable energy sources at a reduced cost to the environment and wallets.

Posted at 11:02am and tagged with: oil, natural gas, coal, fossil fuel, energy, US, NOAA, EPA, emissions, carbon, methane, science, burning, Environment, global warming, climate change, policy, BRIC, ppm,.