A new method for taking carbon dioxide directly from the air and
converting it to oxygen and nanoscale fibers made of carbon could lead
to an inexpensive way to make a valuable building material—and may even
serve as a weapon against climate change.
Carbon fibers are increasingly being used as a structural material on
the aerospace, automotive, and other industries, which value its
strength and light weight. The useful attributes of carbon fibers, which
also include electrical conductivity, are enhanced at the nanoscale,
says Stuart Licht,
a professor of chemistry at George Washington University. The problem
is that it’s very expensive to make carbon fibers, much less nanofibers.
Licht says his group’s newly demonstrated
technology, which both captures the carbon dioxide from the air and
employs an electrochemical process to convert it to carbon nanofibers
and oxygen, is more efficient and potentially a lot cheaper than
existing methods.
But it’s more than just a simpler, less expensive way of making a
high-value product. It’s also a “means of storing and sequestering
carbon dioxide in a useful manner, a stable manner, and in a compact
manner,” says Licht. He points out that if the process is powered by
renewable energy, the result is a net removal of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere. In a recent demonstration, his group used a unique concentrated solar power system,
which makes use of infrared sunlight as well as visible light to
generate the large amount of heat needed to run the desired reaction.
The process requires molten lithium carbonate, with another compound,
lithium oxide, dissolved in it. The lithium oxide combines with carbon
dioxide in the air, forming more lithium carbonate. When voltage is
applied across two electrodes immersed in the molten carbonate, the
resulting reaction produces oxygen, carbon (which deposits on one of the
electrodes), and lithium oxide, which can be used to capture more
carbon dioxide and start the process again.
The researchers demonstrated the ability to make a variety of
different nanofiber shapes and diameters by adjusting specific growth
conditions, such as the amount of current applied at specific points of
time and the composition of the various ingredients used in the process.
They also showed they could make very uniform fibers. Licht says the
mechanisms underlying the formation of the fibers still need to be
better understood, and he’s confident the group can keep developing more
control over the nature of the fibers it makes.
As for the technology’s emissions-cutting potential, the researchers
are optimistic. They calculate that given an area less than 10 percent
of the size of the Sahara Desert, the method could remove enough carbon
dioxide to make global atmospheric levels return to preindustrial levels
within 10 years, even if we keep emitting the greenhouse gas at a high
rate during that period.
Of course, this would require a huge increase in demand for carbon
nanofibers. Licht believes the material’s properties, especially the
fact that it is so lightweight and also very strong, will spur greater
and greater use as the cost comes down, and he thinks his new process
can help with that. Imagine that carbon fiber composites eventually
replace steel, aluminum, and even concrete as a building material, he
says. “At that point, there could be sufficient use of this that it’s
actually acting as a significant repository of carbon.”
Common Name: Seabreeze Scientific Name: Bambusa malingensis Zone: 20°F Origin: Southern China Typical Height: 40' OA Culms: 2.5"" Diam Branches: Branching lowest internode Habit: Tight erect clumper Leaves: Small Uses: Screening, or windbreaker
DESCRIPTION
Seabreeze or Bambusa malingensis is a fast growing, tough, hardy and bushy bamboo with attractive blue-white canes.
Seabreeze is native to Southern China. This bamboo is a perfect
coastal bamboo for Florida, Texas, and Southern California because of
its tolerance to high winds and salty breezes. Great wind breaking
bamboo.
Bambusa malingensis can handle temperatures down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Seabreeze Bamboo can reach heights up to 40 feet tall. The Seabreeze
bamboo is a mid-sized bamboo. This bamboo forms a graceful umbrella
shaped arch when mature. It has few lower branches so you can admire the
distinctive canes.
This bamboo is a tight, non-invasive clumping bamboo with small green
leaves. The culms are straight and form tight, dense clumps.
This particular bamboo is great for screening within one year you
should have great screening from that noisy road out front or that nosey
neighbor next door or maybe you need it to hide that unsightly piece of
equipment in your yard.
Seabreeze can tolerate drought as well as flooding conditions.
The Seabreeze bamboo has many attributes salt tolerant, wind tolerant, and beautiful.
Published
references to the use of bamboo in reinforcing cement concrete
structures or parts thereof indicate that the practice has been followed
for some decades at least, in the Far East (China, Japan, and the
Philippine Islands). During the 1930's several experiments were
carried out in Europe, particularly in Germany and Italy, to test the
performance of cement concrete beams reinforced with bamboo. The most
recent, comprehensive, and readily available information on the subject
is to be found in the report of a series of experiments carried out by
and under the direction of Professor H. E. Glenn.
The researchers then used the stiffness and density data to create a
model that accurately predicts the mechanical properties of bamboo as a
function of position in the stalk. Gibson says wood processors that she
works with in Canada may use the model as a guide to assemble durable
bamboo blocks of various shapes and sizes.
Going forward, the processors, in turn, will send the MIT team
composite samples of bamboo to characterize. For example, a product may
be processed to contain bamboo along with other materials to reduce the
density of the product and make it resistant to insects. Such composite
materials, Gibson says, will have to be understood at the microscale.
“We want to look at the original mechanical properties of the bamboo
culm, as well as how processing affects the product,” Gibson says.
“Maybe there’s a way to minimize any effects, and use bamboo in a more
versatile way.”
Modeling on piezoelectric energy harvesting from pavements under traffic loads Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 1045389X15575081, first published on March 17, 2015
MIT scientists, along with architects and wood processors from
England and Canada, are looking for ways to turn bamboo into a
construction material more akin to wood composites, like plywood. The
idea is that a stalk, or culm, can be sliced into smaller pieces, which
can then be bonded together to form sturdy blocks — much like
conventional wood composites. A structural product of this sort could be
used to construct more resilient buildings — particularly in places
like China, India, and Brazil, where bamboo is abundant.
Such bamboo products are currently being developed by several
companies. The MIT project intends to gain a better understanding of
these materials, so that bamboo can be more effectively used
structurally. To that end, MIT researchers have now analyzed the
microstructure of bamboo and found that the plant is stronger and denser
than North American softwoods like pine, fir, and spruce, making the
grass a promising resource for composite materials.
“Bamboo grows extensively in regions where there are rapidly
developing economies, so it’s an alternative building material to
concrete and steel,” says Lorna Gibson, the Matoula S. Salapatas
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. “You probably
wouldn’t make a skyscraper out of bamboo, but certainly smaller
structures like houses and low-rise buildings.”
Gibson and her colleagues analyzed sections of bamboo from the inside
out, measuring the stiffness of each section at the microscale. As it
turns out, bamboo is densest near its outer walls. The researchers used
their data to develop a model that predicts the strength of a given
section of bamboo.
The model may help wood processors determine how to assemble a
particular bamboo product. As Gibson explains it, one section of bamboo
may be more suitable for a given product than another: “If you wanted a
bamboo beam that bends, maybe you’d want to put the denser material at
the top and bottom and the less dense bits toward the middle, as the
stresses in the beam are larger at the top and bottom and smaller in the
middle. We’re looking at how we might optimize the selection of bamboo
materials in the structure that you make.”
Gibson and her colleagues have published their results in the Journal of the Royal Society: Interface.
A means for toxic cleanup and bioremediation that will help to remove heavy metals, and reduce contaminated soils.
However:
Fast growing, non-GMO trees are not looked to as a resource. Bamboo, for example, is fast-growing and is a carbon sink.
The level of disease in GMO-planted forests is not yet determined,
and since GMO crops have led to super bugs and weed-resistant
super-weeds, assuming that GMO forests would be any different is less
than logical.
There is no question that the genetically modified foods infiltrating
our food supply could be causing negative health effects and
compromising the quality of the ecosystem.But the genetic modification
we’re working so hard to prevent goes beyond the food supply, as even
trees are being genetically engineered. Some experts say that these genetically modified trees are even more environmentally-damaging than GM foods.
MIT scientists, along with architects and wood processors from
England and Canada, are looking for ways to turn bamboo into a
construction material more akin to wood composites, like plywood. The
idea is that a stalk, or culm, can be sliced into smaller pieces, which
can then be bonded together to form sturdy blocks — much like
conventional wood composites. A structural product of this sort could be
used to construct more resilient buildings — particularly in places
like China, India, and Brazil, where bamboo is abundant.
Such bamboo products are currently being developed by several
companies. The MIT project intends to gain a better understanding of
these materials, so that bamboo can be more effectively used
structurally. To that end, MIT researchers have now analyzed the
microstructure of bamboo and found that the plant is stronger and denser
than North American softwoods like pine, fir, and spruce, making the
grass a promising resource for composite materials.
“Bamboo grows extensively in regions where there are rapidly
developing economies, so it’s an alternative building material to
concrete and steel,” says Lorna Gibson, the Matoula S. Salapatas
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. “You probably
wouldn’t make a skyscraper out of bamboo, but certainly smaller
structures like houses and low-rise buildings.”
Gibson and her colleagues analyzed sections of bamboo from the inside
out, measuring the stiffness of each section at the microscale. As it
turns out, bamboo is densest near its outer walls. The researchers used
their data to develop a model that predicts the strength of a given
section of bamboo.
The model may help wood processors determine how to assemble a
particular bamboo product. As Gibson explains it, one section of bamboo
may be more suitable for a given product than another: “If you wanted a
bamboo beam that bends, maybe you’d want to put the denser material at
the top and bottom and the less dense bits toward the middle, as the
stresses in the beam are larger at the top and bottom and smaller in the
middle. We’re looking at how we might optimize the selection of bamboo
materials in the structure that you make.”
Gibson and her colleagues have published their results in the Journal of the Royal Society: Interface.
The GM tree plantations bred to satisfy the world's energy needs
Israeli biotech firm says its modified eucalyptus trees can displace the fossil fuel industry
GM eucalyptus trees at 5 and a half years old, grown in a field trial.
FutureGene claims GM species grow thicker and faster than the natural
plant, making it possible to be grown for energy generation.
Public Domain
It's a timber company's dream but a horrific industrial vision for
others: massive plantations of densely planted GM eucalyptus trees
stretching across Brazil,
South Africa, Indonesia and China, engineered to grow 40% faster for
use as paper, as pellets for power stations and as fuel for cars.
The prospect is close, says Stanley Hirsch, chief executive of the Israeli biotech company FuturaGene.
All that is missing, he says, are permissions from governments for the
trees to be grown commercially, and backing from conservation groups and
certification bodies.
FuturaGene has spent 11 years trialling thousands of GM
eucalyptus and poplar trees on 100-hectare plots in Israel, China and
outside São Paulo in Brazil, and is now at the last stages of the
Brazilian regulatory process for commercial planting. Thanks to a gene
taken from the common, fast-growing Arabidopsis weed, the
company has found a way to alter the structure of plant cell walls to
stimulate the natural growth process. The company says its modified
eucalyptus trees can grow 5 metres (16ft) a year, with 20%-30% more mass
than a normal eucalyptus. In just five and a half years they are 27
metres high.
Hirsch claims the gene-altering technique is an industrial "game-changer" and integral to the UN's vision of a future "global green economy".
"Our trees grow faster and thicker. We are ahead of everyone. We have
shown we can increase the yields and growth rates of trees more than
anything grown by traditional breeding. Potentially, we believe this
[development] can displace the whole fossil fuel industry. The
technology can be adapted to any trees. We can have a whole new supply
of fuel. Yes, I do want to save the world."
GM trees have been grown experimentally since 1986 but despite more
than 700 field trials, mainly in the US on eucalypts, pines, poplars and
fruit trees, European and US legislation has delayed permissions and
very few have ever reached the market. Papaya, a few plums and some pine
trees with genetically engineered viral resistance have been approved
in the US, but only China, which has planted more than 1m GM pines, has
given permission for them to be grown on any scale.
Trees: The Carbon Storage Experts - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation: "The actual rate of carbon sequestration will vary with species, climate and site, but in general, younger and faster growing forests have higher annual sequestration rates. Considering that one half of the weight of dried wood is carbon, trees in a forest hold a lot of carbon. When the enormous amount of carbon stored in forest soils is added to the trees' carbon, it becomes obvious that forests are major carbon storage reservoirs.
The main strategies for using forests for carbon sequestration are listed below in order of their potential for carbon sequestration in New York:
Active forest management - enhancing forest growth through sustainable forestry
Avoided deforestation - reducing the loss of forested land by promoting smart growth and less sprawl.
Forest preservation - leaving forests undisturbed as is done in the 3 million acres of the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve.
Afforestation - adding forest to previously unforested land, as was done on State Forest land during the Great Depression ."
In the past thirty years, China has transformed from an impoverished
country where peasants comprised the largest portion of the populace to
an economic power with an expanding middle class and more megacities
than anywhere else on earth. This remarkable transformation has
required, and will continue to demand, massive quantities of resources.
Like every other major power in modern history, China is looking outward
to find them.
Cities will save us, experts argue. Higher densities of people mean
less energy consumption and lower carbon emissions per capita—a boon for
the environment. People supposedly switch from driving cars to using
public transportation, for instance. But “density in and of itself isn't
changing behavior,” says Conor Gately, a graduate student in Boston
University's department of Earth and environment. Gately and his
colleagues analyzed 33 years' worth of annual carbon dioxide emissions
by on-road vehicles across the U.S. Since 2000 the 50 fastest-growing
counties by population decreased their per capita emissions by only 12
percent—a reduction that was not enough to offset the total emissions
growth in those same areas. The discrepancy probably comes down to the
sprawl of suburbs, the researchers say. If public transportation between
city and surrounding neighborhoods, for example, fails to keep pace
with growth, more and more people will drive into center cities for work
and play and add pollution to areas where they don't live. (That's
what's been happening in Salt Lake City.)
Urban areas that are already dense and have the necessary green
infrastructure, such as New York City, will see their per capita
emissions decline as they grow larger. In 2012 carbon emissions from
vehicles on the road accounted for 28 percent of the total fossil-fuel
CO2 emissions for the entire country—a sizable chunk to
target for reductions. The data suggest that solutions and regulations
should be customized for individual cities, not mandated as national
catchalls.
If per capita carbon emissions in China and India rose to car-happy U.S.
levels, global emissions would increase by 127%, according to the
International Energy Agency. If their emissions stopped at the levels
found in hyper-dense Hong Kong, world emissions would go up less than
24%. As the Asian economies prosper, the United States should hope that
they embrace the skyscraper more than the car, and we should reform our
own policies that subsidize sprawl.
The turbines at Moss Landing power plant on the California coast burn
through natural gas to pump out more than 1,000 megawatts of electric
power. The 700-degree Fahrenheit (370-degree Celsius) fumes left over
contain at least 30,000 parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming—along with other pollutants.
Today, this flue gas wafts up and out of the power plant's enormous
smokestacks, but by simply bubbling it through the nearby seawater, a
new California-based company called Calera says it can use more than 90
percent of that CO2 to make something useful: cement.
It's a twist that could make a polluting substance into a way to reduce
greenhouse gases. Cement, which is mostly commonly composed of calcium
silicates, requires heating limestone and other ingredients to 2,640
degrees F (1,450 degrees C) by burning fossil fuels and is the third
largest source of greenhouse gas
pollution in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. Making one ton of cement results in the emission of roughly one
ton of CO2—and in some cases much more.
While Calera's process of making calcium carbonate cement wouldn't eliminate all CO2 emissions, it would reverse that equation. "For every ton of cement we make, we are sequestering half a ton of CO2," says crystallographer Brent Constantz, founder of Calera. "We probably have the best carbon capture and storage technique there is by a long shot."
Carbon capture and storage has been identified by experts ranging from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
to the leaders of the world's eight richest nations (G8) as crucial to
the fight against climate change. The idea is to capture the CO2
and other greenhouse gases produced when burning fossil fuels, such as
coal or natural gas, and then permanently store it, such as in deep-sea basalt formations.
Calera's process takes the idea a step forward by storing the CO2
in a useful product. The U.S. used more than 122 million metric tons of
Portland cement in 2006, according to the Portland Cement Association
(PCA), an industry group, and China used at least 800 million metric tons.
The Calera process essentially mimics marine cement,
which is produced by coral when making their shells and reefs, taking
the calcium and magnesium in seawater and using it to form carbonates at
normal temperatures and pressures. "We are turning CO2 into carbonic acid and then making carbonate," Constantz says. "All we need is water and pollution."
The company employs spray dryers that utilize the heat in the flue gas
to dry the slurry that results from mixing the water and pollution. "A
gas-fired power plant is basically like attaching a jet engine
to the ground," Constantz notes. "We use the waste heat of the flue
gas. They're just shooting it up into the atmosphere anyway."
In essence, the company is making chalk, and that's the color of the
resulting cement: snow white. Once dried, the Calera cement can be used
as a replacement for the Portland cement that is typically blended with
rock and other material to make the concrete in everything from roads to buildings. "We think since we're making the cement out of CO2,
the more you use, the better," says Constantz, who formerly made
medical cements. "Make that wall five feet thick, sequester CO2, and be cooler in summer, warmer in winter and more seismically stable. Or make a road twice as thick."
Of course, Calera isn't the only company pursuing this idea—just the
most advanced. Carbon Sciences in Santa Barbara, Calif., plans to use
flue gas and the water leftover after mining operations, so-called mine
slime, which is often rich in magnesium and calcium, to create similar
cements. Halifax, Nova Scotia–based Carbon Sense Solutions plans to
accelerate the natural process of cement absorbing CO2 by exposing a fresh batch to flue gas. And a number of companies are working on reducing the energy needs
of Portland cement making. The key will be ensuring that such specialty
cements have the same properties and the same or lower cost than
Portland cement, says Carbon Sciences president and CEO Derek McLeish.
But the companies may also find it challenging to get their cements
approved by regulators and, more importantly, accepted by the building
trade, says civil engineer Steven Kosmatka of the Portland Cement
Association. "The construction industry is very conservative," he adds.
"It took PCA about 25 years to get the standards changed to allow 5
percent limestone [in the Portland cement mix]. So things move kind of
slowly."
Calera hopes to get over that hurdle quickly by first offering a blend
of its carbon-storing cement and Portland cement, which would not
initially store any extra greenhouse gases but would at least balance
out the emissions from making the traditional mortar. "It's just a
little better than carbon neutral,"
notes Constantz, who will make his case to the industry at large at the
World of Concrete trade fair in February. "That alone is a huge step
forward."
"Could you take this calcium carbonate and add it to Portland cement?
You sure can," Kosmatka says. "Could you add it to the ready mix to
replace some of the Portland cement? You probably can do that, too."
That would help to rein in the greenhouse gas emissions from buildings—both from building them and powering them once they are built—that makes up 48 percent of U.S. global warming pollution.
Nor are there any limitations on the raw materials of the Calera cement:
Seawater containing billions of tons of calcium and magnesium covers 70
percent of the planet and the 2,775 power plants in the U.S. alone
pumped out 2.5 billion metric tons of CO2 in 2006. The process results in seawater that is stripped of calcium and magnesium—ideal for desalinization
technologies—but safe to be dumped back into the ocean. And attaching
the Calera process to the nation's more than 600 coal-fired power plants
or even steel mills and other industrial sources is even more
attractive as burning coal results in flue gas with as much as 150,000
parts per million of CO2.
But Calera is starting with the cleanest fossil fuel—natural gas. The
company has set up a pilot plant at Moss Landing because California is
soon to adopt regulations limiting the amount of CO2
power plants and other sources can emit, and natural gas is the primary
fuel of power plants in that state. According to Constantz, some flue
gas is already running through the company's process. "We are using
emissions from gas-fired generation as our CO2 source at the pilot plant where we are making up to 10 tons a day," he says. "That material will be used for evaluations."
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has expressed
interest in testing the cement, and Dynegy, owner of the Moss Landing
power plant, is also intrigued. Although no formal agreement has been
struck, "their proposed technology for capturing CO2
from flue gases and turning it into a beneficial, marketable product
sounds very interesting to us," Dynegy spokesman David Byford says.
"There are very good technologies for capturing the emissions of other
pollutants. The carbon issue is something we are just turning our
attention to now, and so far it's been quite elusive."
Their key intention was to highlight concerns over the United States
government’s pending approval of a genetically modified eucalyptus tree.
The proposal, by the South Carolina-based company ArborGen, is
currently being considered by the US Department of Agriculture. If
approved, it would be the first time a transgenic tree is authorized for
commercial production in the country.
While the debate over GE
plants (or genetically modified organisms, as they are usually called)
has been focused on the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of
transgenic food crops and fish, in the past decade the agricultural
biotech industry has been gradually venturing into another frontier –
forestry.
Genetically modified strains of trees like eucalyptus,
pines, poplars, and fruit trees are being tested in hundreds of trial
plots across the world, including the United States. Although the idea
of transgenic trees isn’t exactly new (scientists have been testing
different versions of GE trees since the 1980s), few have ever made it
to market. The two notable exceptions are the ringspot virus-resistant
GE papaya trees grown commercially in Hawai‘i and more than one million
insect-resistant poplar trees that were planted in northern China in the
early 2000s – a large-scale commercial experiment of which few records
were kept.
The impetus to create different types of transgenic
trees that can grow faster, have more biomass, resist pests and
herbicides, and have low lignin – a chemical compound that promotes
rigidity – is largely driven by the commercial forestry industry that
grows trees for timber, paper, fiber, and, lately, as a raw material for
bioenergy. A recent boom in biofuel energy has spurred demand for trees
that can feed new wood-pellet power plants, biomass incinerators, and
cellulosic biofuel plants.
So the plantation industry, as ArborGen
says in a promotional video, wants “a tree that can do more” and “work
harder.” GE trees, supporters of the technology argue, can produce more
wood per acre, faster, and can therefore relieve the pressure on the
world’s natural forests, mitigate global warming, and, at the same time,
fuel economic development. Boosters also say the technology could help
bring iconic species like the American chestnut back from the brink of
extinction.
The US South – one of the largest pulp and
paper-producing regions in the world, accounting for about 15 percent of
the paper products produced worldwide – has become one the key testing
grounds for these new kinds of trees. Since 2010 ArborGen has been
field-testing its genetically engineered freeze-tolerant eucalyptus on
28 open-air sites across seven southern states, from Florida to South
Carolina. “We selected eucalyptus as it has a high commercial and
environmental value in terms of increased per acre productivity to
support the growing global demand for sustainable wood, fiber, and
energy supplies,” ArborGen spokesperson Cathy Quinn wrote to me in an
email.
Modifying trees, which are integral parts of wild ecosystems, is a knotty issue.
It's a timber company's dream but a horrific industrial vision for
others: massive plantations of densely planted GM eucalyptus trees
stretching across Brazil,
South Africa, Indonesia and China, engineered to grow 40% faster for
use as paper, as pellets for power stations and as fuel for cars.
The prospect is close, says Stanley Hirsch, chief executive of the Israeli biotech company FuturaGene.
All that is missing, he says, are permissions from governments for the
trees to be grown commercially, and backing from conservation groups and
certification bodies.
FuturaGene has spent 11 years trialling thousands of GM
eucalyptus and poplar trees on 100-hectare plots in Israel, China and
outside São Paulo in Brazil, and is now at the last stages of the
Brazilian regulatory process for commercial planting. Thanks to a gene
taken from the common, fast-growing Arabidopsis weed, the
company has found a way to alter the structure of plant cell walls to
stimulate the natural growth process. The company says its modified
eucalyptus trees can grow 5 metres (16ft) a year, with 20%-30% more mass
than a normal eucalyptus. In just five and a half years they are 27
metres high.
Hirsch claims the gene-altering technique is an industrial "game-changer" and integral to the UN's vision of a future "global green economy".
"Our trees grow faster and thicker. We are ahead of everyone. We have
shown we can increase the yields and growth rates of trees more than
anything grown by traditional breeding. Potentially, we believe this
[development] can displace the whole fossil fuel industry. The
technology can be adapted to any trees. We can have a whole new supply
of fuel. Yes, I do want to save the world."
GM trees have been grown experimentally since 1986 but despite more
than 700 field trials, mainly in the US on eucalypts, pines, poplars and
fruit trees, European and US legislation has delayed permissions and
very few have ever reached the market. Papaya, a few plums and some pine
trees with genetically engineered viral resistance have been approved
in the US, but only China, which has planted more than 1m GM pines, has
given permission for them to be grown on any
Working at Home: In Most Places, the Big Alternative to Cars | Heartlander Magazine: "Working at home, much of it telecommuting, has replaced transit as the principal commuting alternative to the automobile in the United States outside New York. In the balance of the nation, there are more than 1.25 commuters who work at home for each commuter using transit to travel to work, according to data in the American Community Survey for 2013 (one year). When the other six largest transit metropolitan areas are included (Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and San Francisco), twice as many people commute by working at home than by transit."
For the past 100 years, virtually all buildings over a few stories
tall have been constructed out of concrete and steel. But some
architects and builders are promoting an alternative they are
positioning as environmentally friendlier: good old-fashioned wood.
Last
week, real-estate developer Hines Interests LP, based in Houston,
unveiled plans to build a seven-story, wooden office building in
Minneapolis near one of the city’s light-rail lines
The turbines at Moss Landing power plant on the California coast burn
through natural gas to pump out more than 1,000 megawatts of electric
power. The 700-degree Fahrenheit (370-degree Celsius) fumes left over
contain at least 30,000 parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming—along with other pollutants.
Today, this flue gas wafts up and out of the power plant's enormous
smokestacks, but by simply bubbling it through the nearby seawater, a
new California-based company called Calera says it can use more than 90
percent of that CO2 to make something useful: cement.
By 2030, 221 Chinese cities will have at least one million residents.
These fast-growing urban areas present an unprecedented opportunity to
create global models for the sustainable, low carbon cities of tomorrow.
China’s 12th Five-Year Plan strongly promotes sustainable cities, and
the coastal city of Qingdao is leading the way in translating this
principle into action on the ground. WRI helped generate Qingdao’s
blueprint for sustainable development, and brought its pioneering
efforts to national attention.
Today, this flue gas wafts up and out of the power plant's enormous
smokestacks, but by simply bubbling it through the nearby seawater, a
new California-based company called Calera says it can use more than 90
percent of that CO2 to make something useful: cement.
There are a growing number of companies and investors that are betting
this conventional wisdom is wrong. They are supporting technologies that
will separate and then trap carbon emissions in a series of "beneficial
products" that can be shipped to markets and sold at a profit. That,
they assert, will avoid the need for much of the carbon capture and
storage (CCS) infrastructure now on energy planners' drawing boards.
The most outspoken salesman for this approach is Brent Constantz, who
has spent much of his career studying, patenting and marketing new ways
to make cement. He believes that what he calls "green cement," which
starts as a milky precipitate made from injecting carbon dioxide from
power plant emissions into seawater, can be made and sold at a profit.
In the Constantz scenario, his "green" cement and "green" aggregate that
is used to make concrete would begin to take market share from
conventional cement makers, which are the nation's third-largest source
of CO2 emissions behind the utility and transportation sectors.
Life-cycle
analysis: The environmental proof of wood
The results are in: According to the Athena Model, wood is a greener choice than
steel and concrete, based on its life cycle attributes. The Athena Model was
developed by Canada’s Athena Sustainable Materials Institute to assist
architects, engineers, and planners to evaluate the environmental
considerations of building materials. The institute’s research shows that wood
is a more environmentally benign material than steel or concrete in terms of
energy use, production of greenhouse gases, air and water pollution, production
of solid waste. and overall ecological resource use.
Sustainability AttributeWoodSteel Concrete
Total energy
use
Lowest 140% more 70% more
Greenhouse
gases
Lowest 45%
more 81% more
Air
pollution
Lowest 42% more
67% more
Water
pollution
Lowest 1900% more 90% more
Solid
waste
Lowest 36%
more 96% more
Ecological resource use
Lowest 16%
more 97% more
Source: Athena Institute
research
shows that wood is a more environmentally benign material than steel or
concrete in terms of energy use, production of greenhouse gases, air
and water pollution, production of solid waste. and overall ecological
resource use.
Sustainability AttributeWoodSteelConcrete
Total energy use Lowest 140% more 70% more
Greenhouse gases Lowest 45% more 81% more
Air pollution Lowest 42% more 67% more
Water pollution Lowest 1900% more 90% more
Solid waste Lowest 36% more 96% more
Ecological resource use Lowest 16% more 97% more Source: Athena Institute
The
model itself compares wood, steel, and concrete from resource
extraction, to manufacturing, to on-site construction, to building
occupancy, to building demolition, and ultimate to the building
material’s disposal, reuse, or recycling. Based on the findings, wood’s
high insulating properties, recycling and resource recovery rates, and
low pollution rates in harvesting and milling show wood to be a most
sustainable and environmentally friendly building material of the three
under review.
“Because the manufacturing of wood products is less
energy intensive than that for other materials, including steel
produced with some percentage of recycled material, the finished product
has lower embodied energy,” says Kenneth Bland, P.E., senior director
of Building Codes for the American Wood Council, supporting the
research. “Any full life cycle analysis comparing wood to steel in
residential structures shows wood to be environmentally superior.”
Similarly,
statistics published by APA–The Engineered Wood Association demonstrate
that the energy required to produce one ton of wood is much less than
that for other materials.
Compared to the energy required to produce a ton of wood, it takes:
· 5 times more energy to produce 1 ton of cement
· 14 times more energy to produce 1 ton of glass.
· 24 times more energy to produce 1 ton of steel.
· 126 times more energy to produce 1 ton of aluminum.
APA also
points out that wood products make up 47% of all industrial raw
materials manufactured in the U.S, yet consume only 4% of the total
energy needed to manufacture all industrial raw materials. - See more
at:
http://www.bdcnetwork.com/using-wood-sustainable-design-construction-1#sthash.W2spxACr.dpuf
Santa Barbara County Leads in Zero Energy Policy & Incentives - Getting to Zero Forum
Earlier this year, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution that states:
“All new Santa Barbara County owned facilities and major renovations
beginning design after 2025 [will] be constructed as Zero Net Energy
Facilities with an interim target for 50% of facilities beginning design
after 2020 to be Zero Net Energy. Santa Barbara County departments
shall also take measures toward achieving Zero Net Energy for 50% of
existing Santa Barbara County owned facilities by 2025 and the remaining
50% by 2035.”
Looking
for even more information? Check out our glossary of building rating
terms, or find information and links to some important initiatives now
underway.
