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Author: ibshambatibshambat Date: Dec 2, 2007 21:21
By Megan Miller
( PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various
scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration,
mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it
underground.
Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine,
which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking
soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be
powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade
baking soda.
Last year, the utility company Luminant installed a pilot version of
the system at its Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield,
Texas.
There's still quite a bit of work to be done to make the current
system viable on a large scale, but the baking soda idea offers
solutions to some of the economic problems posed by other carbon
sequestration methods.
For starters, according to Jones, the stuff can be sold for home or
industrial use or buried harmlessly in landfills or abandoned mines.
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Author: Jonah ThomasJonah Thomas Date: Dec 2, 2007 22:43
> ( PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various
> scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration,
> mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it
> underground.
>
> Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine,
> which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking
> soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be
> powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade
> baking soda.
Freeman Dyson has suggested another possibility. He says to change our
agriculture to something that increases the amount of topsoil. He
suggests we do away with plowing, so that the roots of each crop stay in
the ground and get converted to humus. He says that if we can just
increase the amount of topsoil by a tenth of an inch a year over half
the world's land area, we could keep burning fossil fuels at our current
rate and not have any increase in CO2 levels.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dysonf07/dysonf07_index.html
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Author: JulianJulian Date: Dec 3, 2007 02:41
"Jonah Thomas" gmail.com> wrote >
>> ( PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various
>> scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration,
>> mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it
>> underground.
>>
>> Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine,
>> which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking
>> soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be
>> powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade
>> baking soda. >
> Freeman Dyson has suggested another possibility. He says to change our
> agriculture to something that increases the amount of topsoil. He
> suggests we do away with plowing, so that the roots of each crop stay in
> the ground and get converted to humus. He says that if we can just
> increase the amount of topsoil by a tenth of an inch a year over half
> the world's land area, we could keep burning fossil fuels at our current
> rate and not have any increase in CO2 levels. ...
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Author: Jonah ThomasJonah Thomas Date: Dec 3, 2007 04:13
"Julian" gmail.com> wrote:> "Jonah Thomas" gmail.com> wrote >> Freeman Dyson has suggested another possibility. He says to change
>> our agriculture to something that increases the amount of topsoil.
>> He suggests we do away with plowing, so that the roots...
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Author: John JonesJohn Jones Date: Dec 3, 2007 07:58
On Dec 3, 5:21�am, ibsham...@ gmail.com wrote: > By Megan Miller
>
> ( PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various
> scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration,
> mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it
> underground.
>
> Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine,
> which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking
> soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be
> powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade
> baking soda.
>
> Last year, the utility company Luminant installed a pilot version of
> the system at its Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield,
> Texas.
>
> There's still quite a bit of work to be done to make the current
> system viable on a large scale, but the baking soda idea offers ...
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Author: JulianJulian Date: Dec 3, 2007 09:28
"Jonah Thomas" gmail.com> wrote in message
news:20071203071341.618f9ce3.jethomas5@gmail.com...> "Julian" gmail.com> wrote:>> "Jonah Thomas" gmail.com> wrote>
>>> Freeman Dyson has suggested another possibility. He says to change
>>> our agriculture to something that increases the amount of topsoil.
>>> He suggests we do away with plowing, so that the roots of each crop
>>> stay in the ground and get converted to humus. He says that if we
>>> can just increase the amount of topsoil by a tenth of an inch a year
>>> over half the world's land area, we could keep burning fossil fuels
>>> at our current rate and not have any increase in CO2 levels.
>>
>> Ploughing removes roots from the ground? How does that work?
>> I've never noticed ploughman carting off loads of vegetable matter
>> from freshly ploughed fields.
>>
>> Wouldn't the loss of crop yield that would result from ceasing
>> ploughing and thus (probably) efficient crop rotation increase
>> the pressure to release more ancient forest for agriculture? ...
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Author: tgtg Date: Dec 3, 2007 09:41
On Dec 3, 12:28 pm, "Julian" gmail.com> wrote:> "Jonah Thomas" gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:20071203071341.618f9ce3.jethomas5@gmail.com...
>
>
>>> "Julian" gmail.com> wrote:>>> "Jonah Thomas" gmail.com> wrote>
>>>> Freeman Dyson has suggested another possibility. He says to change
>>>> our agriculture to something that increases the amount of topsoil.
>>>> He suggests we do away with plowing, so that the roots of each crop
>>>> stay in the ground and get converted to humus. He says that if we
>>>> can just increase the amount of topsoil by a tenth of an inch a year
>>>> over half the world's land area, we could keep burning fossil fuels
>>>> at our current rate and not have any increase in CO2 levels.
>
>>> Ploughing removes roots from the ground? How does that work?
>>> I've never noticed ploughman carting off loads of vegetable matter ...
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Author: Fred WeissFred Weiss Date: Dec 4, 2007 00:19
On Dec 3, 12:41 pm, tg earthlink.net> wrote:
>...motor cars didn't 'naturally arise' to solve the
> problem of horseshit in the streets of London.
No, but they arose to solve the problem of the relative inefficiency,
limits, and cost of horses.
> Likewise, less-polluting cars will not 'naturally arise' to solve the
> problem of pollution.
No, they will arise when and if the cost of gasoline gets higher than
people want to pay.
Btw, note how quickly motor cars replaced the horse once they became
affordable. The very same thing will happen with "less-polluting"
cars.
> There's something in economic theory called externalization, ...
There's also something in economic theory called the motivating power
of profits.
That's the little thing Malthus overlooked when he predicted that
increasing population would lead to famine.
Fred Weiss
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Author: chazwinchazwin Date: Dec 4, 2007 02:02
On Dec 3, 5:21 am, ibsham...@ gmail.com wrote: > By Megan Miller
>
> ( PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various
> scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration,
> mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it
> underground.
>
> Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine,
> which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking
> soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be
> powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade
> baking soda.
>
> Last year, the utility company Luminant installed a pilot version of
> the system at its Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield,
> Texas.
>
> There's still quite a bit of work to be done to make the current
> system viable on a large scale, but the baking soda idea offers ...
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Author: tgtg Date: Dec 4, 2007 05:17
On Dec 4, 7:22 am, Jonah Thomas gmail.com> wrote:> Fred Weiss papertig.com> wrote:>> tg earthlink.net> wrote:>
>>>...motor cars didn't 'naturally arise' to solve the
>>> problem of horseshit in the streets of London.
>
>> No, but they arose to solve the problem of the relative inefficiency,
>> limits, and cost of horses.
>
> I think they arose because people were interested in the engines, and
> then they looked for things they could use them for. If it turns ou5
> that outer space is good for something it won't be that we went to space
> to "solve that problem". We went to space because we wanted to, and we
> could, and then we looked for ways to justify it.
>
>>> Likewise, less-polluting cars will not 'naturally arise' to solve
>>> the problem of pollution.
>
>> No, they will arise when and if the cost of gasoline gets higher than ...
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