Despite widespread reservations, United States, China, and Exxon all move forward on carbon sequestration
In the cleantech world, carbon sequestration, or the practice of capturing CO2 emissions and trapping them underground or inside materials, is something of a black sheep. Environmentalists call it a “boondoggle”, some engineers think it’s “absolutely crazy”, and even some politicians have called it a risky bet. Yet a string of recent announcements show that the technique has enough support to compete with other green technologies for attention, and money.
The most recent is a United… Continue Reading
Are biofuels bad? The debate doesn’t end; meanwhile, crisis approaches from coal and oil
If you were following the breathless headlines a few days ago, you now know that new biofuel production (i.e. more farms) from some feedstocks, including corn, likely causes more global warming than if we continued to use fossil fuels.
A pair of of Princeton researchers found that corn-based ethanol doubles greenhouse gas emissions on a 30-year timeline, and increases overall levels for 167 years. Worse, converting land currently used for corn to switchgrass (a popular feedstock… Continue Reading