GEC Research Proposal
Dobri, Charles, and Daniel
Introduction:
With movies such as “The Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore, it is becoming more and more obvious that society is concerned about the impact of the modern way of life on nature. With the carbon footprint of humankind reaching historic levels, the search for a way to reduce it is on. One obvious path to follow is to minimize the carbon output. However, with society still strongly dependant on fossil fuels, there is a long way to go before we can effectively reduce the carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Another logical way to solve the problem is to look for a technique to extract carbon from the air. After all, extracting carbon from the atmosphere will actively diminish the carbon footprint of humankind.
There are different approaches to carbon sequestration being currently developed. All of them however include the reduction of air-borne carbon compounds to solids and then burying these solids deep underground where they will not have negative effects on the atmosphere and the global climate, such as global warming. A specific technology that is currently developed at the Earth Institute at Columbia is the so called “carbon tree”. This is a device which mimics the way tree leaves capture carbon dioxide. It then converts to carbon to a graphite-like solid which can be easily transported and disposed of. This is an important scientific breakthrough because it provides a practical, not terribly expensive, and environmentally friendly way to reduce the carbon footprint in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The more specific question our research will aim to answer is just how applicable this technology is in the modern urban world. After we explore the specifics of the carbon trees and gain a better understanding of exactly how they work and how effective they are, we will try to find the most effective way to implement them in the urban areas such as downtown Manhattan where free space is scarce. It is particularly important to implement carbon sequestration in big cities as they are the biggest sources of pollution and in them the concentration of carbon dioxide is highest, thus posing the most direct threat to the people living in them. Part of the aims of our group is to also construct a mathematical model predicting just how effective these trees can be in an urban environment, so that we can calculate an expected effect on the urban atmosphere.
The project is highly multifaceted as it involves different academic areas. The first and most obvious is environmental engineering involved in the actual design of these machines. Second of all, it involves civil engineering and the ever challenging questions of infrastructure and urban organization. Third, we will try to study the social impact of those devices. Last but not least, the financial perspective of the project plays an important role as it is crucial to evaluate just how effective the technology is, taking into account the financial resources that need to be invested in it.
A person to interview:
Profile: http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2523
Prof. Klaus Lackner teaches geophysics at Columbia, and is working on an "air extractor",
a device based on the leaves of trees that absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide. We would
like to interview him to find out more about the devices. Some questions we would like to
ask him are:
Are the devices feasible? (How much space would they take up, especially when compared to
natural trees; would the synthetic trees require energy to use? What is the
absorption-size ratio?)
Where could the devices best be placed in order to counteract CO2 emissions?
What are some current design challenges being faced? How could the performance of the
trees be improved?
How does it work?
A place to visit:
We have several ideas for places to visit:
1) The Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energyhttp://www.energy.columbia.edu/
Here, we could do research into how the artificial extractors work by observing the
development and by seeing the extractors in person.
2) Finding places to apply the technology
We could also go find places where the devices could be placed in order to be most
effective and cause as little disturbance as possible. Perhaps we could do calculations
to find out how much space would be required for extractors to counteract a particular
factory's carbon dioxide emissions, or look for places such as rooftops where the devices
could be placed with minimum disruption.
Profile: http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2523
Prof. Klaus Lackner teaches geophysics at Columbia, and is working on an "air extractor",
a device based on the leaves of trees that absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide. We would
like to interview him to find out more about the devices. Some questions we would like to
ask him are:
Are the devices feasible? (How much space would they take up, especially when compared to
natural trees; would the synthetic trees require energy to use? What is the
absorption-size ratio?)
Where could the devices best be placed in order to counteract CO2 emissions?
What are some current design challenges being faced? How could the performance of the
trees be improved?
How does it work?
A place to visit:
We have several ideas for places to visit:
1) The Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energyhttp://www.energy.columbia.edu/
Here, we could do research into how the artificial extractors work by observing the
development and by seeing the extractors in person.
2) Finding places to apply the technology
We could also go find places where the devices could be placed in order to be most
effective and cause as little disturbance as possible. Perhaps we could do calculations
to find out how much space would be required for extractors to counteract a particular
factory's carbon dioxide emissions, or look for places such as rooftops where the devices
could be placed with minimum disruption.
Academic Sources:
Beedlow, Peter A., David T. Tingey, Donald L. Phillips, William E. Hogsett, and David M. Olszyk. "Rising Atmospheric CO2 and Carbon Sequestration in Forests." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2.6 (2004): 315-22. JSTOR. 12 Jan. 2010. Web.
This article provides evidence against the “fertilization effect”, which posits that increased plant growth due to higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations may counteract such concentration changes via carbon sequestration. The articles claims that air pollution limits the benefits of the fertilization effect.
Bonnie, Robert, Melissa Carey, and Annie Petsonk. "Protecting Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Climate through a Global Carbon Market." Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 360.1797 (2002): 1853-873. JSTOR. 12 Jan. 2010. Web.
This article describes the need for an economic framework to address the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. The authors suggest the adoption of a global carbon market, as outlined in the Kyoto Protocols. This would also serve to enhance carbon sequestration efforts in an economic sense.
Additional Materials and Sources:
McKenna, Phil. "Emission Control: Turning Carbon Trash into Treasure." New Scientist 25 Oct. 2010. Web.
"NETL: Carbon Sequestration." DOE - National Energy Technology Laboratory: Home Page. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. <http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/carbon_seq/index.html>.
"Chicago Climate Exchange." Chicago Climate Exchange. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. <http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/>.
Looking Forward:
The plan for next semester is to find out more about the actual technology of carbon trees. Furthermore we want to investigate just how applicable they are in urban areas and how much of a change they can bring.
