All electrons are same, aren’t they? What a strange question! There is a reason for this. And that has got to do with what is called peak load. You see, if the entire world uses electricity at a constant rate, without fluctuations, things could be a lot quieter at power plants. But that’s not the way how electricity is consumed. […]
Napier grass, also called Elephant grass and Uganda grass, is a species of perennial tropical grass, a native of the African grasslands. As it has low water and nutrient requirements, it can be grown in many areas with ease. It has been used as a fodder crop for silage in many tropical and subtropical countries. But all these still do […]
Who would have thought that sand – yes, sand – can be used as a battery! But that is precisely what some companies have succeeded in doing. How do sand batteries work? Firstly, a battery does not always mean that it stores electricity the way the conventional batteries do – which is in an electrochemical form. Electricity can also be […]
Natural gas is a fossil fuel, extracted from under the ground. While natural gas emits CO2 when combusted for heating or power generation, its CO2 emissions are only about 50% that of coal and about 80% that of gasoline or diesel. This is why natural gas is considered to be a transition fuel on the journey to Net Zero – […]
Coal is thought to be one of the key villains in our fight against climate change. And for a reason – almost 30% of all the global CO2 emissions come from power generation, and coal-based power plants contribute a dominant share of these emissions. While countries are trying to cut down on coal-based power and increase power from renewable energy […]
Hydrogen is an invisible gas. That’s what chemistry taught us. But now we are told there are different colours of hydrogen – grey, blue and green in particular. What’s going on? Well, the above colours are applied depending on how the gas is produced. Grey hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced from natural gas – this process emits CO2 and thus […]
CO2 has no colour, but the world uses a term blue carbon. What is blue carbon? Blue carbon refers to the CO2 sequestered by the marine ecosystem, especially by coastal ecosystems comprising mangrove forests, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows. Why is blue carbon important in the context of climate action? Estimates show that blue carbon ecosystems can store twice the […]
Most of the talk around greenhouse gases is about CO2 and methane (CH4). Did you know that using too much fertilizers can emit a different greenhouse gas? How? In addition to CO2 & CH4, another important greenhouse gas is Nitrous Oxide (N2O) – yes, what we call the laughing gas. Fertilizers contain nitrogen, and overapplication of fertilizers can lead to […]
With the fast growth of Internet and cloud services, the need for more and larger data centers is also increasing globally. Data centers already consume significant amounts of electricity, and thus are responsible for significant amounts of CO2 emissions. Globally, about 600 million tons of CO2 emissions are contributed from data center operations alone, about 2% of total CO2 emissions. […]
The world wastes a lot of food. Make that a real lot – about 1 billion tons of food is wasted every year globally. Digest that for a moment. Can such a large amount of food waste be turned into something valuable? How about converting food waste into food – for animals? This is precisely what many innovative startups around […]
