#carbondioxide

The Invisible Death from Lake NyosOn August 21, 1986, Lake Nyos exploded. The crater lake in Cameroon didn't make much noise at all. There was no lava, steam, smoke, ash, or fire, but by morning the damage was done. Almost all the people, animals, and even insects were dead for miles around, with no apparent clues as to what killed them. The threat was gone by the time investigators arrived. They eventually figured out the Lake Nyos itself was the culprit, as the lake suddenly released enough carbon dioxide to kill 1,746 people and 3,500 head of cattle. How could a lake hold that much carbon dioxide? How could it suddenly release so much of it? Most lakes can only absorb one liter of carbon dioxide per liter of water at normal pressure and temperature. However, Lake Nyos is 682 feet deep. At the bottom, the pressure is high and the temperature is low, so each liter of water can hold 20 times as much carbon dioxide as the surface water. Lake Nyos is also a volcanic crater, and was apparently taking in gasses at its lower depths. John Richard Saylor, author of the new book Lakes: Their Birth, Life, and Death, gives us the scientific explanation of how a deep lake could suddenly regurgitate deadly amounts of CO2 at Atlas Obscura. -via Strange Company(Image credit: US Geological Survey) #LakeNyos #carbondioxide

Calcium Carbonate Concrete: A New Kind of Concrete Made From Waste Material and Carbon Dioxide PollutantConcrete is a dominant material in the construction industry. In order to produce this, companies release carbon dioxide into our atmosphere that can further accelerate climate change. Researchers are now proposing a new way to reduce emissions caused by concrete by introducing a sustainable and environmentally-friendly material, the calcium carbonate concrete.The future construction material is made from waste concrete and carbon dioxide from the air or industrial exhaust gases. Its functionality was proven to work by Professor Ippei Maruyama and C4S (Calcium Carbonate Circulation System for Construction) project manager Professor Takafumi Noguchi from the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo.  Image credit: Maruyama et al.#concrete #carbondioxide #globalwarming #climatechange #calciumcarbonate

This is What Happens the Instant a Candle Flame is ExtinguishedWe’ve all blown out birthday candles, but few of us have seen up close what exactly happened to the recently extinguished candle wick.To help us understand what happens when a candle is extinguished, photographer @Macrofying took this close-up macro image and explained that when a candle is burning, the flame breaks down the hydrocarbon of the candle wax and burns all that carbon into carbon dioxide. But when the flame goes out, the glowing wick still has enough heat to break down carbon molecules in the wax but not enough heat to burn them into carbon dioxide. Instead, the carbon is released as smoke.#MacroPhotography #candle #smoke #candlewax #candlewick #hydrocarbon #carbon #carbondioxide

This Carbon-Removal Machine In Iceland Is The Largest In The World, And It Will Remove Up To 4000 Tons of Carbon Dioxide YearlyThe simplest and probably the most cost-effective method to reduce carbon dioxide from our atmosphere is by planting trees. However, one weakness of this method is the amount of land needed for it. But because carbon dioxide is a growing problem in today’s world, some companies have started looking for other methods to reduce carbon dioxide. One such method that they have found is by building big carbon dioxide-removing machines, also known as “direct air capture” (DAC) machines.Just recently, the Swiss company Clineworks, with their Icelandic partner Carbfix, have launched the Orca, their new direct air capture and storage plant, which is stationed in Iceland. The Orca is said to be the largest DAC and storage plant in the world. It is said that this humongous machine will capture 4000 tons of CO₂ per year, which is about the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 870 cars. The plant opened on September 8 of this year.The plant is composed of eight boxes about the size of shipping containers, each fitted with a dozen fans that pull in air. CO2 is filtered out, mixed with water, and pumped into deep underground wells, where over the course of a few years it turns to stone, effectively removing it from circulation in the atmosphere.While the Orca is certainly a big milestone, the DAC industry still has a long way to go if they plan to achieve the International Energy Agency’s Sustainable Development Scenario goal of 10 million tons of carbon dioxide captured annually.(All Images Credit: Climeworks)#GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #CO2 #CarbonDioxide #CarbonEmission #DirectAirCapture