Carbon dioxide

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Identifing tiny gold clusters as top-notch catalysts

For most of us, gold is only valuable if we possess it in large-sized pieces. However, the "bigger is better" rule isn't the case for those interested in exploiting gold's exceptional ability to catalyze a wide variety of chemical reactions, including the oxidation of poisonous carbon monoxide (CO) into harmless carbon dioxide at room temperatures.

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Skipping atomic-scale stones to study some chemistry basics

Thought experiment: a carbon dioxide molecule—think of a cheerleader’s baton—comes slanting in at high speed over a dense liquid, strikes the surface and ricochets.

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Carbon capture milestone for CSIRO in China

Just weeks out from the Olympics, the CSIRO and its Chinese partners have officially launched a post-combustion capture (PCC) pilot plant in Beijing that strips carbon dioxide from power station flue gases in an effort to stem climate change.

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Acidification of sea hampers reproduction of marine species

By absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and from the human use of fossil fuels, the world's seas function as a giant buffer for the Earth's life support system. The chemical balance of the sea has long been regarded as immovable.

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Paying to save tropical forests could be a way to reduce global carbon emissions

Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests.

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Amazon outflow is found to power ocean capture of carbon dioxide

Nutrients washed out of the Amazon River are powering huge amounts of previously unexpected plant life far out to sea, thus trapping atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study. Until now, the areas around the Amazon and other great rivers had been thought to be emitting CO2, so the study may affect climate scientists' calculations of how the greenhouse gas acts.

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Coal-generated CO2 captured in Australia - first

In a first for Australia, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been captured from power station flue gases in a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

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Molecular mechanisms of starch breakdown in plants

Energy from the sun and carbon dioxide fuel photosynthesis in plants and algae, making life on earth possible. Carbon that is fixed by plants is converted to starch and sucrose, which are utilized by plants for energy and to build biomass.

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Solution for the global carbon dioxide problem

Of the current global environmental problems, the excessive release of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels and the related global warming is one of the most pressing. In an essay in the journal ChemSusChem , Fritz Scholz and Ulrich Hasse from the University of Greifswald introduce a possible approach to a solution: deliberately planted forests bind the CO 2 through photosynthesis and are then removed from the global CO2 cycle by burial.

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New gas sensors for monitoring carbon dioxide sinks

A novel gas sensor system makes it possible to monitor large areas cost-effectively the first time. The patented gas sensor is based on the principle of diffusion, according to which certain gases pass through a membrane faster than others. Using a tube-like sensor it is possible to measure an average gas concentration value over a certain distance without influencing or distorting conditions in the measuring environment.

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Before fossil fuels, Earth's minerals kept CO2 in check

Over millions of years carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been moderated by a finely-tuned natural feedback system— a system that human emissions have recently overwhelmed. A joint University of Hawaii / Carnegie Institution study published in the advance online edition of Nature Geoscience links the pre-human stability to connections between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the breakdown of minerals in the Earth’s crust.

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Revolutionary CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources

A new, high- resolution interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren't all where we thought.

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