Harnessing solar energy for high-efficiency NH₃ production
A technology that harnesses solar energy to produce high-efficiency ammonia (NH3) has been unveiled by a research team affiliated with UNIST.
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A technology that harnesses solar energy to produce high-efficiency ammonia (NH3) has been unveiled by a research team affiliated with UNIST.
5 hours ago
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A team of physicists and engineers at Technical University of Denmark reports that it is possible to build a working selenium–silicon tandem solar cell, a combination that could theoretically improve the efficiency of solar ...
Renovating buildings to improve their energy efficiency is a crucial step towards Switzerland achieving its climate targets. ETH Zurich researchers can now reveal the most effective renovation strategies for reducing greenhouse ...
Mar 21, 2024
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As the globe grapples with the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources, solar power stands as a beacon of hope. However, a significant challenge has been to efficiently capture and utilize the ...
Apr 18, 2024
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It's a major contributor to climate change—the way buildings and roads are made with concrete. It's also a problem that's growing as more of the world develops. So the race has been on to find solutions for a material that's ...
Apr 12, 2024
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Berkeley's agreement to throw out its first-in-the-nation ban on gas hookups in new buildings after losing a court challenge might seem like a big loss for climate action.
Apr 8, 2024
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Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has been cast as a problem in the urgent, international effort to tackle climate change. As AI plays a greater role in our lives, it will need enormous amounts of computing power and ...
Apr 7, 2024
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Panasonic's new US$4 billion battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, is designed to be a model of sustainability—it's an all-electric factory with no need for a smokestack. When finished, it will cover the size of 48 football ...
Apr 3, 2024
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Japan announced plans on Wednesday to develop a next-generation passenger jet over the next decade after the last struggling attempt, led by a private company, was scrapped a year ago.
Mar 27, 2024
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In a large hall on the outskirts of Vienna, shiny pipes carry treated wastewater through three giant heat pumps, part of Austria's drive to reduce carbon emissions and its dependence on Russian gas, with more and more European ...
Mar 27, 2024
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Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fuels formed by natural resources such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. These fuels contain high percentage of carbon and hydrocarbons.
Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years. This biogenic theory was first introduced by Georg Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century.
It was estimated by the Energy Information Administration that in 2006 primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.8%, coal 26.6%, natural gas 22.9%, amounting to an 86% share for fossil fuels in primary energy production in the world. Non-fossil sources included hydroelectric 6.3%, nuclear 6.0%, and (geothermal, solar, tide, wind, wood, waste) amounting 0.9 percent. World energy consumption was growing about 2.3% per year.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form, and reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being formed. The production and use of fossil fuels raise environmental concerns. A global movement toward the generation of renewable energy is therefore under way to help meet increased energy needs.[citation needed]
The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide per year, but it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year (one tonne of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 44/12 or 3.7 tonnes of carbon). Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that enhances radiative forcing and contributes to global warming, causing the average surface temperature of the Earth to rise in response, which climate scientists agree will cause major adverse effects.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA