Not everyone of you would have heard about John Goodenough, though we feel he deserves to be far more familiar than he is. Goodenough is one of the key scientists credited with the invention and development of the Li-ion battery. Goodenough received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1943 and his master’s and Ph.D. in physics from […]
It is generally accepted that most coal that we used today were formed from plant materials. If that were so, can we make coal from the hundreds of millions of tons of agricultural waste available worldwide? Yes. It is possible to convert biomass into a material very similar to coal through a process called torrefaction. Torrefaction refers to the slow […]
No, we are not kidding. Geothermal energy is heat energy from the earth’s crust. Some regions of the world (think Iceland) are blessed with massive geothermal activity right under their surface. Such regions are ideal for setting up geothermal power that can use the hot water from under the earth to run a turbine and generate power. The interesting thing […]
You might have heard of biofuels – these are typically liquid fuels like ethanol or biodiesel that can partially or fully replace fossil transport fuels such as gasoline or diesel. World over, many vehicles are encouraged to run on biofuels. But biofuels are hydrocarbons too. When any hydrocarbon burns, it emits CO2. And so do biofuels, in amounts comparable to […]
Whales have massive bodies. And massive bodies store massive amounts of CO2. An adult whale could weigh a bit more than 100 tons – about the same as the maximum takeoff weight of a Boeing 720. Imagine that. More importantly for climate, an adult whale could sequester up to 33 tons of CO2 in its body. And when the whale […]
Who doesn’t like trees? They give us food, fiber, materials and capture atmospheric CO2 in large amounts. But how important is the CO2 capture by trees in the context of climate action? Specifically, how much CO2 does a tree capture over its lifetime? The answer depends on which tree one is talking about. Some exceptional trees such as coastal redwood […]
If electric cars are going to be the future, will it not be great if their batteries can be continuously charged from electricity generated by solar panels placed on their roofs? So, is it possible to run electric cars entirely from panels on their roofs? The short answer is: No, unless you use the car for very short distances everyday. […]
