Month: August 2016

Sanz-Perez, Eloy S.; et al. (2016): Direct Capture of CO2 from Ambient Air

Sanz-Perez, Eloy S.; Murdock, Christopher R.; Didas, Stephanie A.; Jones, Christopher W. (2016): Direct Capture of CO2 from Ambient Air. In Chemical reviews. DOI 10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00173.

“This Review provides a historical overview of the field of DAC, along with an exhaustive description of the use of chemical sorbents targeted at this application. Solvents and solid sorbents that interact strongly with CO2 are described, including basic solvents, supported amine and ammonium materials, and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), as the primary classes of chemical sorbents.”

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Clingerman, Forrest; OBrien, Kevin J. (Eds.) (2016): Theological and Ethical Perspectives on Climate Engineering: Calming the Storm

Clingerman, Forrest; O’Brien, Kevin J. (Eds.) (2016): Theological and Ethical Perspectives on Climate Engineering: Calming the Storm: Lexington Books.

Calming the Storm presents diverse perspectives on some of the most vital questions raised by climate engineering: Who has the right to make decisions about such global technological efforts? What have we learned from the decisions that caused the climate to change that might shed light on efforts to reverse that change? What frameworks and metaphors are helpful in thinking about climate engineering, and which are counterproductive? What religious beliefs, practices, and rituals can help people to imagine and evaluate the prospect of engineering the climate?

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Tang, M. J.; et al. (2016): Heterogeneous reaction of ClONO2 with TiO2 and SiO2 aerosol particles. Implications for stratospheric particle injection for climate engineering

Tang, M. J.; Keeble, J.; Telford, P. J.; Pope, F. D.; Braesicke, P.; Griffiths, P. T. et al. (2016): Heterogeneous reaction of ClONO2 with TiO2 and SiO2 aerosol particles. Implications for stratospheric particle injection for climate engineering. In Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., pp. 1–42. DOI 10.5194/acp-2016-756.

Introduction of particles into the stratosphere would scatter solar radiation back to space, thereby reducing the temperature at the Earth’s surface and hence the impacts of global warming. Minerals such as TiO2 or SiO2 are among the potentially suitable aerosol materials for stratospheric particle injection due to their greater light scattering ability compared to stratospheric sulfuric acid particles. However, the heterogeneous reactivity of mineral particles towards trace gases important for stratospheric chemistry largely remains unknown, precluding reliable assessment of their impacts on stratospheric ozone which is of key environmental significance.

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STEPS centre Blog: Responsibility and geoengineering in the Anthropocene

“As the Anthropocene Working Group debate the start date of a new geological era, Jack Stilgoe asks what the Anthropocene means for how science takes responsibility for the climate. In this excerpt from his book, Experiment Earth, Jack looks at the relationship between the identification of the Anthropocene and the arrival of proposals for geoengineering, the deliberate manipulation of the Earth’s climate.”

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Center for Carbon Removal: Recap: US Biochar Initiative – 2016 Conference

“The 2016 US Biochar Initiative Conference wrapped up yesterday after a jam-packed few days of demonstrations, speeches, and breakout sessions on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, California. Biochar is touted by many as a potential carbon removal solution, and I wanted to learn how close biochar is today to delivering on this promise. Below are my key takeaways from the conference.”

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