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From Cleantech

Blenheim, New Zealand-based startup Carbonscape says it has developed an industrial microwave process to turn plants, trees and other biomass into charcoal in order to store carbon dioxide emissions for thousands of years.

Carbonscape’s technology is based on the principle that plants can remove carbon from the atmosphere but eventually die and rot, releasing the stored gases. Turning the biomass to charcoal prevents microbial breakdown and locks away the emissions, the company says. Such charcoal is referred to as biochar.

Carbonscape calls other carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies dangerous because of the potential for the accidental release of underground or underwater gases. Carbonscape says its technology is also superior because there’s no need for new technology to capture carbon emissions.

Last week, Danish shipping and oil company A.P. Moller-Maersk announced it was investigating whether sea vessels can transport greenhouse gases for underwater storage more efficiently and more cheaply than pipes (see Ships, not pipes, for CO2 ocean burial). Scientists are still seeking ways to quantify the underground storage capacity for carbon sequestered from power plants (see MIT unlocking carbon capture and storage).

Carbonscape says the process converts 40 percent to 50 percent of wood debris into charcoal, with each unit having the capability to lock away one metric ton of CO2 into charcoal each day.

Carbonscape has proposed plantations of fast-growing trees that can be cut down and subjected to the industrial microwave, at which point the charcoal could be buried underground.

Carbonscape says the industrial microwaving is a net winner when it comes to emissions. Although the process produces carbon dioxide emissions, the amount is significantly less than the carbon dioxide captured in the charcoal.

In September, the company began using its prototype in a pilot run in South Island, New Zealand.

Carbonscape was founded in December 2006. The company says it has multiple international patents on its technology.

The talks are meant to conclude in Copenhagen in December with a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. One battleground is between industrialized and developing countries on how to split the cost of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

“How are things looking in terms of that agreement? Worrying,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a carbon trading conference in Copenhagen.

“Countries have not come forward with specific proposals on how aspects of the Copenhagen agreement can work in practice,” he told Reuters, referring to “gaps” in a document meant to form the basis of a legal text.

Before the final session in Copenhagen senior officials from about 190 countries will negotiate that text at a series of meetings, the first held later this month in Bonn.

“I’m not concerned by the mood, about willingness to get the job done, I’m concerned by the amount of time that’s left to get the work done,” de Boer said, adding that recession had made it more difficult to ask finance ministers for help.

Industrialized countries are meant to agree to specific targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Japan, Ukraine, Switzerland and Russia still had not made offers.

“(A Copenhagen deal) has to include 2020 targets,” said de Boer. “Those numbers need to be ambitious otherwise we’re not close to what science tells us needs to be done.

De Boer said that U.S. President Barack Obama’s goal to bring U.S. greenhouse gases back to 1990 levels by 2020 was a “first good offer.” He declined to comment on what he thought would be a suitable U.S. goal.

Major emerging economies such as China and India were not expected to agree to concrete targets but rich countries want them to agree specific actions.

“We also need clarity on what major developing countries are willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions, and to get that I think finance is essential,” he told Reuters.

De Boer criticized EU finance ministers who appeared to lay conditions on financial help to the South — depending on what specific climate actions developing countries first proposed.

“This is not helpful in moving the world forwards to an agreement in Copenhagen,” he said, and urged EU leaders meeting in Brussels later this week to be more decisive.

“I think without clarity on finance from industrialized countries there will be no commitment from developing countries.”

From The Guardian

A “perfect storm” of food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration as people flee from the worst-affected regions, the UK government’s chief scientist warned last week.

In a major speech to environmental groups and politicians, Professor John Beddington, who took up the position of chief scientific adviser last year, said that the world is heading for major upheavals which are due to come to a head in 2030.

He told the government’s Sustainable Development UK conference in Westminster that the growing population and success in alleviating poverty in developing countries will trigger a surge in demand for food, water and energy over the next two decades, at a time when governments must also make major progress in combating climate change.

“We head into a perfect storm in 2030, because all of these things are operating on the same time frame,” Beddington told the Guardian.

“If we don’t address this, we can expect major destabilisation, an increase in rioting and potentially significant problems with international migration, as people move out to avoid food and water shortages,” he added.

Food prices for major crops such as wheat and maize have recently settled after a sharp rise last year when production failed to keep up with demand. But according to Beddington, global food reserves are so low – at 14% of annual consumption – a major drought or flood could see prices rapidly escalate again. The majority of the food reserve is grain that is in transit between shipping ports, he said.

“Our food reserves are at a 50-year low, but by 2030 we need to be producing 50% more food. At the same time, we will need 50% more energy, and 30% more fresh water.

“There are dramatic problems out there, particularly with water and food, but energy also, and they are all intimately connected,” Beddington said. “You can’t think about dealing with one without considering the others. We must deal with all of these together.”

Before taking over from Sir David King as chief scientist last year, Beddington was professor of applied population biology at Imperial College London. He is an expert on the sustainable use of renewable resources.

In Britain, a global food shortage would drive up import costs and make food more expensive. Some parts of the country are predicted to become less able to grow crops as higher temperatures become the norm. Most climate models suggest the south-east of England will be especially vulnerable to water shortages, particularly in the summer.

The speech will add to pressure on governments following last week’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, where scientists warned that the impact of global warming has been substantially underestimated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The latest research suggests that sea level rises, glacier melting and the risk of forest fires are at, or beyond, what was considered the worst case scenario in 2007.

Beddington said that shifts in the climate will see northern Europe and other high-latitude regions become key centres for food production. Other more traditional farming nations will have to develop more advanced pesticides or more hardy crops to boost yields, he said. In some countries, almost half of all crops are lost to pests and disease before they are harvested. Substantial amounts of food are lost after haversting, too, because of insufficient storage facilities.

Beddington said a major technological push is needed to develop renewable energy supplies, boost crop yields and better utilise existing water supplies.

Looming water shortages in China have prompted officials to build 59 new reservoirs to catch meltwater from mountain glaciers, which will be circulated into the water supply.

Beddington will use the speech to urge Europe to involve independent scientists more directly in its policy making, using recent appointments by President Barack Obama in the US as an example of how senior scientists have been brought into the political fold. Shortly after taking office, Obama announced what many see as a “dream team” of scientists, including two Nobel laureates, to advise on science, energy and the environment.