Carbon Sequestration & Bioplastics: Smithsonian’s so close, yet so far away…
This month’s Smithsonian contains some food for deeper thought on subjects dear to us here at Ecolectic.
An interview with Wallace Broecker of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory gives some insight into his ‘carbon scrubber‘ project. The idea sounds good, though having to manufacture something on the scale of 17 million 10′ x 50′ scrubbers sounds like major undertaking of energy and resources. Why not use algae and terra preta for carbon sequestration instead? Fixing carbon into an ancient fertilizer, while producing oxygen and valuable lipids via algae is more appealing than deploying an army of machines that require energy to manufacture and operate. The idea of pumping co2 into the ocean floor or deep underground isn’t all that comforting either.
The second article delves into corn-derived bioplastics or PLA (Poly Lactic Acid), a topic tied to the popular misgivings about corn-derived ethanol. Bioplastics are a promising and, perhaps, necessary innovation, but the feedstock needs to be something other than corn, which has been shown to be environmentally damaging, energy-intensive and vulnerable. Reducing the amount of oil-derived plastic is key, but there are better sources for lactic acid out there, such as dairy waste (whey) or biomass, such as, say, algae.
Noble effort Smithsonian. Let’s talk phycology next time, k? ;^P
Curtiss P. Martin grew up in a geodesic dome on the side of a mountain in Southern Appalachia. Now he serves as ScribeMedia's clean technology editor in a tall building in downtown Manhattan.
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