Artificial Leaf can replicate process of photosynthesis ten times more efficiently than plant leaves

A group of researchers say they have developed the first practical artificial leaf, capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen with sun light.

Speaking at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society over the weekend, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics photosynthesis in converting sunlight and water into energy.

"A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades," said Daniel Nocera, Ph.D., who led the research team. "We believe we have done it. The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. Our goal is to make each home its own power station," he said. "One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology."

The device bears no resemblance to Mother Nature's counterparts on oaks, maples and other green plants, which scientists have used as the model for their efforts to develop this new genre of solar cells. About the shape of a poker card but thinner, the device is fashioned from silicon, electronics and catalysts, substances that accelerate chemical reactions that otherwise would not occur, or would run slowly.

Placed in a single gallon of water in a bright sunlight, the device could produce enough electricity to supply a house in a developing country with electricity for a day, Nocera said. It does so by splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen and oxygen gases would be stored in a fuel cell, which uses those two materials to produce electricity, located either on top of the house or beside it.

Nocera, who is a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, points out that the "artificial leaf" is not a new concept. The first artificial leaf was developed more than a decade ago by John Turner of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Although highly efficient at carrying out photosynthesis, Turner's device was impractical for wider use, as it was composed of rare, expensive metals and was highly unstable--with a lifespan of barely one day.

Nocera says the new "leaf" overcomes these problems, being made of inexpensive materials that are widely available, work under simple conditions and are stable. In laboratory studies, he showed that an artificial leaf prototype could operate continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity.

The key to this breakthrough is Nocera's recent discovery of several new, inexpensive catalysts, made of nickel and cobalt, that are capable of efficiently splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen, under simple conditions. Right now, Nocera says the leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf. However, he is optimistic that he can boost the efficiency of the artificial leaf much higher in the future.

"Nature is powered by photosynthesis, and I think that the future world will be powered by photosynthesis as well in the form of this artificial leaf," said Nocera, a chemist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

Source: Sustainable Business

Nocera

The Artificial Leaf

A matter of grave cncern- Is GRANITE Radioactive??

Granite is an intrusive igneous rock which is found below the surface of the Earth. It is commonly used to tile platforms in kitchens, floors and many other uses which bring it close to the human body. According to a recent study, Granite has been found to be radioactive.
Let me Explain before you gasp and remove all the granite from your house and office. Every element gives out some amount of radioactivity, which is sometimes not measurable! But granite gives out a large amount of Radon! It also contains uranium! I was shocked wen someone told me this, but on further reading, I found out that what he said was very much true! It was already known that almost every substance had Carbon 14, but it did not give out that uch Nitrogen or radon. And this was what instigated the scientists to carry out this study.
Granite can emit more than 10 times the radon than other common household materials. It releases Radon when the Uranium present in the granite slabs break up. Radon causes lung cancer if one is exposed to it for long.
So do you thik that we have gone too much into Mother Earth's skin, The crust? (granite is found underneath the crust when newly formed). Is this her punishment for disturbing the natural balance?

Granite

Flamingoes: Why are they pink?

Flamingoes are grey when they hatch. They turn pink from the cartinoid pigments present in the algae and crustaceans which they eat. Their liver breaks down the food into orange and pink pigment molecules that are stored in their feathers. The more a flamingo eats,  the better and brighter their plumage is, so their colour is also a sexual selection characteristic used by the females when assessing the male's health.

Isn't it surprising and intruiging? What of humans had different skin tones based on the amount of food they eat? Would it be used for the same purposes? Imagine that you have just exercised and you are feeling hungry... Your colour would change (maybe). So isn't it great how flamingoes recognize their fellow mates?

A Chilean Flamingo Plucking its Feathers

Is Carbon Dioxide storing safe?

Imagine, you are in Iceland, where boffins are going to start storing carbon dioxide in basalt, thereby converting it into limestone. Out of the blue, a strong earthquake which is as powerful as the earthquake which triggered the Fukishima tsunami, which is 9 on the Richter scale, strikes a top secret facility where Carbon Dioxide is being stored. Probably, the limestone would release all the bonded CO2 gas. Or the limestone would get into cracks within the Earth's surface, which would probably result in the basalt meting  away and the Carbon dioxide gas being vapourized. All of these would wreak havoc in the Earth's atmosphere. Is this also a doomsday prediction???

A World Coal Institute Diagram depicting Carbon Storage

Scientists believe that storing carbon in Basalt will save us

HELLISHEIDI, Iceland: Sometime next month, on the steaming fringes of an Icelandic volcano, an international team of scientists will begin pumping "seltzer water" into a deep hole, producing a brew that will lock away carbon dioxide forever.
Chemically disposing of CO2, the chief greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, is a kind of 21st-century alchemy that researchers and governments have hoped for to slow or halt climate change.
The American and Icelandic designers of the "CarbFix" experiment will be capitalizing on a feature of the basalt rock underpinning 90 percent of Iceland: It is a highly reactive material that will combine its calcium with a carbon dioxide solution to form limestone, permanent, harmless limestone.
Do you think this is both environmentally and economically viable? For example, we store 50 tons of carbon at a certain location which is hit by a richter 8.9 earthquake? What will happen? Will the carbon get released into the atmosphere? If Yes, then what impact will it have on the living organisms?

Basalt (Geology.com)

Limestone

West pollutes, we pay

The unfairness of the rich nations’ demands to impose legally binding emission cuts on developing nations is held up starkly in a study that shows how the US has used up in 150 years nearly three times its carbon emission entitlement for 200 years.

According to a TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) study, the US is entitled to emit 30.95 Gigatons of carbon (GtC) into the atmosphere between 1850 and 2050, but it has already emitted 81.57 GtC by 2000. Similarly, the EU has crossed its entitlement by nearly 25 GtC and Russia by 7 GtC. On the other hand, while India is entitled to 112.12 GtC over the 200 year period, it has used only 6 GtC by 2005. China, with an entitlement of 136.24 GtC, used only 19.37 GtC.

The paper, “Equitable Access to Sustainable Development: An Indian Approach” allocated entitlements by the “per capita emissions” philosophy, which believes that every human being is entitled to an equal share of global atmospheric carbon sink. It gives each country’s share on the basis of its population. It’s been authored by Prof. T. Jayaratha, dean, School of Habitat Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, with colleagues Tejal Kanitkar and Mario D’Souza from the Centre for Science, Technology and Society, School of Habitat Studies.

The paper points out that to keep global warming in check, temperature rise should not exceed 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. That works out to more than 393 GtC in about half a century. The manner in which this “Carbon Budget” is divided across the globe, the paper states, should take into account the degree to which various countries have polluted the atmosphere in the past.

The future entitlements fir the US, EU and Russia work out to be -50 GtC, -24 GtC and -7 GtC respectively for the period 2000 – 2050. This means that even if they drop their emissions to ZERO, which is IMPOSSIBLE, developing nations would not be able emit the amount of carbon they are entitled to.

The paper points out that developing nations have a “Development Deficit” in terms of their industrial ad infrastructural capabilities, in the absence of which they are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The paper suggests a monetary compensation based on the difference between a country’s potential use of carbon space and the emissions the country is entitled to. By this logic, at a price of $ 20 for each ton of carbon emission that India doesn’t use, the developed world owes us $707 Billion!

In another research paper, the same authors have argued that this is a gross underestimation. It suggests that developed countries that have overused their atmospheric carbon sinks help developing nations build infrastructure for alternate sources of fuel that do not result in carbon emission, part from the compensation.

Table of countries with their emission entitlement and emissions till 2000

Country	Emission entitlement from 1850 – 2050 (GtC)	Emission till 2000 (GtC)
U.S.A.	30.85	81.57
E.U.	51.74	76.7
Russia	15.77	22.84
Canada	3.30	5.95
Australia	2.06	2.85
India	112.1	25.58
China	136.24	19.37

A Polluting Factory

Orange peel turned into oil

York: A scientist in the UK has built a microwave which he claims can turn orange peels into oil.

James Clark at the University of York says that the high-powered microwave could break down the molecules in fruit peels to release gasses that could be collected and distilled into a liquid product. These valuable gases can then be used to produce oil, plastics, chemicals and fuels.

According to James, the microwave method could also be used on a variety of plant-based waste to make fuel or other products. They include straw, cashew nut shells, apple peels, coffee or rice husks.

“Orange peels are an excellent example of a wasted resource. In Brazil, the world’s largest producer of orange juice, half the orange fruit is left as waste once the juice has been removed. This corresponds to eight million tons a year of orange peel that can be used to produce chemicals, materials and fuels,” he said.

Clark built the GB £200 000 microwave, which looks like a one found in any kitchen, at his laboratory in the Green Chemistry Centre at the University of York.

It can only treat small amounts of food waste, but soon, a model that can process 30kg of waste an hour is due to be in operation. Clark says that much bigger models, costing about £1 000 000 [one million pounds] could treat six tons of food waste an hour and could soon become a familiar sight at recycling centres across the United Kingdom.

They could also be sited at shopping centres to treat waste food from cafes and restaurants. “The unique feature of our microwave is that we work at deliberately low temperatures. We never go above 200 degrees Celsius. You can take the limonene [the substance that gives citrus fruits their smell] off or you can turn limonene into other chemicals. It works really well with waste paper. It can take a big range of bio-waste material,” Clark said.

Orange Peel

Dedicated to green living

The Danish island of Samso looks an unlikely place for a revolution. Yet this windswept scrap of Scandinavia has recently undergone a remarkable change. Today it exports millions of kilowatt hours of electricity to mainland Denmark while its carbon footprint has been cut by a staggering 140% since 1997. Dozens of wind turbines dot the landscape, houses have solar-panelled roofs, and a line of giant turbines off its southern coast swirl in the wind. Towns are linked to district heating systems which pump hot water to homes, powered by solar panels or by generators which burn straw or timber chips.

Samso once generated an annual 45,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide – about 11 tonnes a head – but by scrapping its old fossil-fuel generators and building renewable power plants, that figure has been cut to -15,000 tonnes. (The minus figure arises because Samsingers export their excess energy.)

Yet none of the enterprises which achieved these changes were imposed by outsiders or energy companies. Each is owned either by a local collective or by an individual islander, a striking social transformation that began in 1997 when the Danish government selected the island to be the site of a national energy experiment. Søren Harmensen, a former teacher, was picked to run it and to encourage islanders to cut their carbon habits. Slowly, the idea took hold and the first projects were launched; a couple of turbines on the west coast and a district heating plant. "Nothing was achieved without talk and a great deal of community involvement," he says.

There has been a price, of course: about £40m, which has been invested by the Danish government, the EU, local businessmen and individual members of collectives. That works out at £10,000 for every islander, which works out – if you multiply that sum by 60m, the UK population – at £600bn as the cost of bringing a similar revolution to Britain and £12000 billion billion to India.

"This is a pilot project to show the world what can be done," insists Harmensen. "We have shown that if you want to change how we generate energy, you have to start at the community level and not impose technology on people." And that is the real lesson from Samso. What has happened here is a social not a technological revolution. "We are not hippies," says Harmensen. "We just want to change how we use our energy without harming the planet or without giving up the good life."

Danish hotel gives costumers free meal for cycling 15 minutes

Copenhagen: A Danish hotel found a unique way to motivate costumers to go green by pedalling in exchange for a $ 36 food voucher, which can be exchanged for a healthy `meal in one of the many restaurants.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen engages its visiting customers to exercise in their gym and produce about 10 Wh per 15 minutes of cycling, and reduce their carbon footprint… well, the numbers are small, and the reduction is even smaller, but nonetheless, the idea is great. This offer is only available to the guests staying in the hotel. The company says that if the program goes well, they will consider opening it to outsiders and introducing it to their hotels in the United Kingdom.

A Guest cycling at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Copenhagen

Solar powered boat to circumnavigate the world

PlanetSolar's TÛRANOR is currently on its way to becoming the first solar-powered boat to circumnavigate the globe. Driven by a silent, pollution-free electrical engine that is powered exclusively by solar energy, the PlanetSolar team has two goals in mind. The first objective is to show that current technologies aimed at improving energy efficiency are reliable and effective. The second is to advance scientific research in the field of renewable energy.

The world’s largest solar-powered boat has already been to Miami, Cancun, Brisbane, Hong Kong and just made its way to Vietnam. Measuring around 101 feet long and 49 feet wide, the $26 million TÛRANOR can comfortably transport 50 passengers.

The Swiss-designed, German-built ship is powered by over 5,380 square feet of solar panelling. The panels power two electric motors, which can reach 15 miles per hour. The panels can also soak up enough stored energy to power the boat in cloudy weather for three days. The excess energy is stored in a giant lithium-ion battery.

And, in case you were wondering how PlanetSolar came up the ship's name, TÛRANOR is derived from the “Lord of the Rings” saga by J.R.R. Tolkien and translates to: “the power of the sun” and "victory."

Planet Solar Boat

Single Burner Stove charges u.s.b. devices

BioLite is a remarkable thermoelectric camping stove that converts a fraction of the thermal energy from fire into electricity, enough to power both a turbo fan and an external 1–2 watt USB device charger for mobile phones and LED lanterns.

The device yields 1400 degrees at peak, enough to boil a litre of water in approximately 4 minutes. Furthermore, the BioLite stove’s efficient process uses less than 1/2 the wood of an open fire and reduces smoke emissions by more than 95%.

The stove reduces the amount of wasted energy by channelling it to the U.S.B. port, which can be used to power devices like phones, MP3 players and Tablets.

Climate controlled jacket keeps wearer hot or cold

When Kranthi Vistakula moved from the sweltering heat of Hyderabad, India, to study at Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the frigid East Coast winters gave the young engineer a chilly reception. Trudging through Boston's sub-zero winters with layers of clothing -- only later to remove those layers once inside warm classrooms -- irked Vistakula. So he created a climate-controlled, all-weather jacket capable of adjusting to extreme temperatures.
The MIT graduate is now CEO of Dhama Innovations, his start-up in Hyderabad that has begun selling ClimaWare jackets and other clothing that allow wearers to control their comfort level without adding or removing layers.
"Our products can go from 0 to 100 degrees Celsius in the push of a button," Vistakula told reporters. "We have four levels of heating and four levels of cooling that include low, medium, high and very high."
Despite bulky prototypes weighing over 7 pounds, complete with motorised fans, heating pipes and electric wiring, Vistakula settled on a more streamlined design by using a thermoelectric device called a Peltier plate, which consists of a junction between two different metals. Forcing an electric current across that junction causes the metal on one side to heat up, and the metal on the other side to cool down.

The ClimaWare Jacket