ROCKET NOZZLES COULD PULL CARBON FROM AIR
An aerospace company is working to turn rocket nozzle technology into an interesting method for cleaning up the carbon-laced air emitted by coal-burning power plants.
Aerospace and defense company ATK (Alliant Techsystems Inc) is trying to develop a way “to use aerodynamic force, rather than chemicals, to separate out carbon dioxide from a power plant's air before it is released into the atmosphere.” This method could not only be extremely environmentally helpful, but also extremely cost-efficient compared to current methods.
ATK vice president Robert Bakos said “Today's carbon capture technology adds 80 percent to the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity delivered. With our approach, we could knock that down to 30 percent.”
Right now, 36 percent of US carbon emissions come from coal. And while mining for coal seems like an easier, better method than our reliance on foreign countries for oil, this will come back and bite us in the butt in the future where we will inevitably live in a coal constrained society.
Bakos explains the system, saying "When you accelerate air to very high speed, you have to expand the air very quickly. It cools the air and in some cases if you have water (vapor) in the air, it will make it condense into water or even snow. The same idea applies if you have carbon dioxide,"
Normally carbon dioxide is the gas we all know of but when frozen, it becomes dry ice. When cooling, the particles can be extracted from the air by various techniques, then stored, and then used in other applications. That’s what ATK’s plan is all about, they plan to “pressurize a power plant's exhaust gas, then put it through a rocket nozzle so that it expands and cools, allowing dry ice to form.”
And while these other techniques might not be available for years, the company will demonstrate this technology within 8 months, and then move onto a pilot program in power plants.
This seems to me like another weird but cool method that none of us have probably heard of. In logic and practice, it seems like a good, realistic plan but we will just have to wait and see. NNNNDDD
Questions:
3. What is another way to either extract carbon or lesson the amount of it going into the atmosphere?
http://news.discovery.com/tech/rocket-nozzles-carbon-capture.html
This is actually very interesting, and in my opinion will succeed much more that other methods. The fact that it uses carbon dioxide is a great idea, because we have an extremely large supply of that. I agree that in time this could all play out very well, but only time will tell. If this does work, it will be a very good plan in helping us to not rely on coal so much. I don't think that this is the best plan we've seen yet, but it definitely is a great idea that will help to find even better ones. We will get there one step at a time, and every small idea gets us closer. Also, finding cost-efficient energy sources like this one is crucial.
ReplyDeleteHere are some pictures and more information about dry ice, which is formed by this method: http://ny-icecream.com/Dry_Ice.html
I think this is a great article. I agree with Nicole it could definitely will succeed more than the other methods that have been talked about. I think if this turns out the way it could then it will pay out very well like Nicole said. The possibilities that can come from this are great!
ReplyDeleteI think another good thing about this is that it will be introduced sooner then other, which could benefit us greatly.
Here is a link expanding on the topic:http://www.livescience.com/environment/071120-carbon-soak.html
Now this is what we need! This is an excellent and brilliant discovery. Just as Nicole said, having an environmentally friendly AND cost efficient method like this one is very important. Right now, more than ever, we need to be careful and observant of what is entering our atmosphere. Earth's ozone layer is something I don't want to mess with. If this method works (which I hope does), it could be very beneficial to a rebuilding state of global warming. Also, by being cost-efficent, we could use the extra money we save in researching and enhancing our important alternate energy sources. I am surprised and greatly impressed with this discovery, and I hope this works!
ReplyDelete1. Dry ice is very important in food preservation and storage.
2. Reducing emissions is, in my opinion, the most important thing going on in our environment right now and for the next 20 years.
3. I tried to researcj some other ways, and I could really only find something about cleaning the coal or crushing it up before burning it. It somehow makes the emissions "cleaner". This just shows how imortant this discovery is.
It definatley sound like a good way of cleaning our emmisions from fossil fuels. It definatley seems very possible that it will be used in the future. 1) As of right now dry ice is used in preservaing food. 2) In my opinion reducing emmisions is not our top priority however it is near the top of the list. In 20 however it may change, i just dont know how the air quality will be to know if it will be a higher priority in 20 years or not. 3)Solar energy has no emmisions so it is one way to reduce the amount of pollution. i think this method in combination with some other alternative energy sources could be what we need to do going into the future. It sounds like a great way to reduce emmisions and definatley an important discover. I really hope this works because if it does it could improve our way of life, energy wise, emmensly.
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