• The Environment

    A Better CO2 Scrubber

    By Molika Ashford Posted on 10.1.2008 11 Comments

    Around half of our CO2 emissions aren’t from big power plants, or even small power plants, according to researchers from the University of Calgary. They’re from diffuse sources, like car exhaust, home heating and airplanes, which can’t be easily sucked up at the source. Led by climate scientist David Keith, the Calgary group is working on technology that could soak those “diffuse emissions” right out of the air. Their system is a kind of air scrubbing tower, which takes air and reacts the CO2 out of it by exposing it, in this case, to sodium hydroxide. Then the stuff goes through a few chemical intermediaries eventually leaving separated CO2 that can be piped away, and more hydroxide to feed back into the scrubber.

    10.2.2008 at 03:18am - Comment by Obey

    discovery channel feature this on their discovery project earth i found the idea very interesting. it gets piped away to an underground facility, but what i was wondering when he said that, was is this stuff harmful to our environment? Will it only help for a small amount of time and then this byproduct that is full of carbon dioxide going to harm the environment even more? I think the best and most urgent solution for helping to reduce the effect of global warming is to change our dependence on fuels that pollute the air. be cause like the article said most of our pollution come from cars. I'm not saying it's only problem, but it's one of the biggest contributors.

  • Technology

    Inflatable Surveillance Balls for Mars

    By Corey Binns Posted on 9.26.2008 12 Comments

    By next fall, NASA plans to launch its biggest Red Planet rover yet, the $1.8-billion, SUV-size Mars Research Laboratory. Even though the MRL will be able to haul five times as much equipment as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that are already on Mars, a group of Swedish researchers say that they could accomplish far more if accompanied by a squad of helper ’bots. Fredrik Bruhn, the CEO of Ångström Aerospace Corporation, and his colleagues have designed the small inflatable scouts to assist bigger, less mobile rovers in their hunt for signs of microbial life on Mars.

    9.30.2008 at 08:46pm - Comment by Obey

    it's sounds very interesting and much more cost effective it could get more done which is an advantage



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