Our next unit in chemistry is gases and atmospheric chemistry, and this article I found seems to fit in quite nicely. Entitled, "Meet the first lady of graphene, turning harmful gases into the wonder stuff", this Telegraph article tells the story of a scientist who has discovered a way to turn methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, into a useful material. Gases in our atmosphere, even if they are only present as one part per million or less, can have serious effects on our health and the health of our planet. Greenhouse gases typically don't harm use directly, but have a harmful effect on the environment. Greenhouse gases form a layer in our atmosphere which allows sunlight in, but does not let heat escape. This creates a sort of pressure cooker, or greenhouse, effect, which normally keeps the Earth at a nice temperature, preventing it from becoming to cold. But when too many greenhouse gases are present, this effect is heightened, leading to global temperature increases, which can have very harmful effects. Atmospheric chemistry is very important for this reason: it allows us to monitor, assess, and predict what changes in the composition of our atmosphere will cause.
The article starts off by explaining what exactly graphene is. It's been heralded as "one of the most interesting inventions of modern times", due to its potential use as a semiconductor or building material (Burn-Callendar, 2014). Catharina Paukner is the lead scientist in this project, and she's discovered a way to mass produce graphene, from the methane produced by landfills and even cows. Not only is graphene rust-free, lightweight, and stronger than steel, but it also has potential for 3-D printing. (Burn-Callendar, 2014). Using plasma, Paukner can turn pumped-in methane from anywhere in the world to produce tonnes of graphene, usable in aerospace, automotive, and architectural industry. And, all this innovation has been spearheaded by one scientist, eager to change the world for the better.
This article is obviously very exciting to me, and I think it should excite anyone who reads it. I think most people have heard the scary statistic that it's not cars that produce the most greenhouse gas, but actually agriculture, and mostly from cows. Collecting the gas from livestock and unsightly landfills is an obvious first step towards reducing overall impact on the environment.
So I'll pass it over to you: do you think this is the best we can do, or should we try harder to reduce emissions from agriculture and waste disposal? If so, what are some ideas you have?
Link to article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/11273843/Meet-the-first-lady-of-graphene-turning-harmful-gases-into-the-wonder-stuff.html
I’m glad you brought this up because there are some ways we can reduce emissions form agriculture. Some of the proposed methods are expensive in material cost but are simple in design, like draining water from wetland rice soil during growing season, to yield the CH4 (methane) emissions. We can also start fertilizing crops with the exact amount of nitrogen, such they produce less N2O when compared to inefficient nitrogen application. These can be easily implemented in farms; however it would be expensive and would bring in the legal issue if the government would be too oppressive if they enforced this. For example, not all farmers around the work (or in Canada) could afford to implement complex irrigation and fertilization systems on large farms, but I do think we need to start doing these things sometime soon. These are my two ideas, and I do think we should try harder to reduce emissions; I just get concerned that the government might press too high standards on laws it can’t enforce (which won’t help the emission situation).
ReplyDeleteSORCE: http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/agriculture.html
Hey James!
ReplyDeleteHuh, that really is an exciting discovery! It’s crazy that we can create such innovative ideas with what we have to work with. When life gives you lemons, make a potential world changing material, right? As much as this is a great idea to both the environment and the future of construction the only catch for me would be the method of making graphene. Is there a lot of other greenhouse gases produced in the manufacturing of this, or would the factories that need to be built damage the environment more than it would help?
Still, as long as the pros outweigh the cons I’m totally for this and that it should be looked into. I do think this is a large step towards a greener future, but I don’t think this is the only idea we can come up with! This could possibly lead to more inventions that wouldn’t hold up with weaker not as durable materials. This is only the start, and I’m pretty excited to hear about more inventions in the future revolving around graphene!
Keep on science-ing,
-Celeste