Fuel on EARTH Magazine

Sipping carbon-neutral fuel from the atmosphere

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:28:17 -0400

Carbon Engineering's proof-of-concept Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant in British Columbia has been harvesting carbon from the air since 2015. Credit: Carbon Engineering.

In the near future, vehicles may be powered by carbon that comes from the sky, rather than out of the ground. Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology pulls carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converts the carbon into pellets that can be used to make hydrocarbon fuel that works in traditional engines. A new study details the process, which has been tested over the last three years, and offers some cost-saving solutions that make DAC more economically feasible than ever.

Trash-to-treasure: Turning nonrecycled waste into low-carbon fuel

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:45:27 -0400

Paper and cardboard commodity streams are part of the output of a materials recovery facility. John R. Fyffe

Americans produce more than four pounds of trash per person per day, amounting to 20 percent of the world’s waste. Although recycling rates have increased over the past few decades — out of the 4.4 pounds of trash (per capita) that we produce in the U.S. each day, we compost or recycle about 1.5 pounds and incinerate another 0.5 pounds — more than 50 percent of our waste still ends up buried in landfills. Now, through the use of a novel energy recovery technique, we could reduce the amount that is sent to landfills by about 10 percent and produce a fuel that is relatively clean and more energy dense than coal. Materials that were considered garbage for generations are now being recognized for what they still offer after their useful life — valuable energy resources capable of solving multiple problems at once. Trash can become treasure.

Crystal Ball EARTH: Agriculture: The future will have a different face than the past

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

U.S. Geological Survey

Tomorrow’s agriculture is facing an immense challenge. By 2050, the world’s population will reach somewhere between 9 billion and 10 billion people, and a greater proportion of those people will be enjoying a richer diet than today’s population. That means farmers will have to grow twice as much food. The world has already witnessed a preview of what might happen if large populations don’t receive an adequate supply of food: They do not accept their fates passively.

Breaking the Energy Barrier

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Refueling Air Force planes in midair increases fuel costs to about $42 per gallon. U.S. Air Force photo by Jet Fabara

The Department of Defense is the world's single largest energy consumer and is poised to help solve the world's energy challenges. Photo: Tech. Sgt. Angela Stafford, USAF

President Barack Obama, Col. Dave Belote and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., tour Nellis Air Force Base. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Nadine Y. Barclay

Can the Department of Defense solve the world’s energy crisis one jet at a time?

Testing methane's potential on the North Slope

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Sediment cores reveal hydrates (the white part of the core). An estimated 17 trillion cubic meters of natural gas as methane hydrates are stored beneath the North Slope. U.S. Geological Survey

In the Canadian Arctic, scientists are testing whether methane production through depressurization is feasible. U.S. Geological Survey

A chunk of methane hydrate. U.S. Geological Survey

One concern about depressurizing methane hydrates in the North Slope is that it could cause the marshy ground to collapse under the weight of production infrastructure. Dave Houseknecht, U.S. Geological Survey

Buried beneath the gigantic swath of desolate tundra that forms Alaska’s North Slope are some of the nation’s biggest hydrocarbon resources. For decades, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline has supplied about 20 percent of the nation’s oil. But below the permafrost of the Last Frontier lies another huge fossil fuel resource — and this one is a lot harder to tap.