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It’s one thing to read about <keyword id="19907392" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-change" source="keywords">climate change</keyword> and <keyword id="19951337" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-emissions" source="keywords">carbon emissions</keyword> in an article, and quite another to see the toxic fumes engulfing your entire country — swirling over it like a certain menacing doom. <keyword id="19935155" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="NASA" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="NASA">NASA</keyword> recently unveiled a groundbreaking visualisation tool that offers an unprecedented look at how carbon dioxide (CO2) moves around our planet. This high-resolution model provides a stunning, animated map of <keyword id="22576003" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-CO2-concentrations" source="keywords">global CO2 concentrations</keyword>, revealing the complex patterns of this crucial <keyword id="20719964" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="greenhouse-gas" source="keywords">greenhouse gas</keyword>. <div type="Youtube" id="zZ-lMDtiI-k" title="Model Behavior: Visualizing Global Carbon Dioxide" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zZ-lMDtiI-k/mqdefault.jpg"><url><![CDATA[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-lMDtiI-k]]></url></div>By combining billions of data points from satellites and ground observations, NASA scientists created a dynamic picture of how CO2 is emitted, transported, and absorbed across the globe. This interactive map showcases <keyword id="22576002" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CO2-concentrations" source="keywords">CO2 concentrations</keyword> as they shifted through Earth's atmosphere from January to March 2020, influenced by wind patterns and atmospheric circulation. With its exceptional detail, you can zoom in to pinpoint CO2 emissions rising from power plants, fires, and urban areas, as they spread across continents and oceans. Over India, you can see the greenhouse gas blowing over from neighbouring continents and also originating from the subcontinent. The pulsating oranges indicate CO2 concentrations of 420-460 ppm over India. <h2>The sources of CO2 </h2>One of the most striking features of the map is its ability to zoom in on specific regions, allowing viewers to see CO2 emissions rising from individual cities and industrial complexes. This level of detail provides a clear and compelling picture of human activities' impact on the environment. The map highlights distinct emission patterns across different regions. In China, the United States, and South Asia, power plants, industrial facilities, and vehicles were the primary contributors to CO2 emissions. Conversely, in Africa and South America, fires ignited by land management practices, agricultural burning, and deforestation, along with the combustion of oil and coal, were the main sources. <h2>Pulsating gases</h2>The map also highlights the role of natural systems in the carbon cycle. Forests, oceans, and other ecosystems absorb vast amounts of CO2, acting as vital carbon sinks. However, the visualisation also reveals how human activities are overwhelming these natural systems, leading to a buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere. Further, the map exhibits a pulsating appearance. This is because, firstly, fires typically intensify during daylight hours and subside at night, creating a diurnal pattern. Secondly, the absorption and release of CO2 by plants during photosynthesis and respiration contribute to the fluctuations. This pulsing effect is particularly noticeable in regions with abundant vegetation, such as mid- to high-latitude forests and tropical areas. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112021374" title="Scientists found a groundbreaking new reason to plant more trees" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>“This map is a powerful tool for understanding the scale and complexity of the climate crisis,” said [Quote from NASA scientist]. “It shows us where the biggest problems are and where we need to focus our efforts to reduce emissions.” The data behind the map comes from NASA's <keyword id="22576004" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="goddard-earth-observing-system" source="keywords">Goddard Earth Observing System</keyword> (GEOS), a sophisticated model that simulates Earth's atmosphere with incredible detail. By applying this model to CO2, scientists have gained new insights into the gas's behaviour and its impact on the planet. As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change, tools like this are essential for informing policy decisions, tracking progress, and inspiring action. NASA’s CO2 map is a remarkable achievement that offers a glimpse into the urgent need to transition to a low-carbon future. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111566431" title="June warmest on record; every month since July 2023 breached 1.5 deg C threshold" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

WATCH: A NASA animation shows gigantic plumes of carbon dioxide emissions swirling over India

<keyword id="6357147" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="tata-steel" source="Orion">Tata Steel</keyword> has partnered with <keyword id="87" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="germany" source="Orion">Germany</keyword>'s SMS group to explore development of low carbon steel making process. As part of the MoU, both companies shall undertake further technical discussions and initiate actions for conducting Joint Industrial Demonstration of the EASyMelt technology developed by SMS group, Tata Steel said in a statement. "The demonstration will be executed at <keyword id="17711230" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="e-blast-furnace" source="Orion">E Blast Furnace</keyword> in Tata Steel's Jamshedpur plant with an objective to reduce CO2 emission by more than 50 per cent from blast furnace's baseline operation," it said. The EASyMelt (electric-assisted syngas smelter) technology is an iron-making solution that can be implemented in existing integrated steel plants to accelerate decarbonisation. <keyword id="1441007" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="t-v-narendran" source="Orion">T V Narendran</keyword>, CEO &amp; MD, Tata Steel, said "We actively look for solutions to facilitate the transition to green steel production, and thus contribute to a sustainable future. Further, <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> being the second largest steel producer in the world also places a huge responsibility on large manufacturers like Tata Steel to lead the country's decarbonisation journey." Tata Steel intends to take this association ahead with a deeper collaboration to access better technologies and processes to reduce the carbon footprint in a meaningful and consistent way, he said. Tata Steel is prioritising decarbonisation and has set a goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2045. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-bard-cool-things-you-can-do-with-the-ai-chatbot/articleshow/101012445.cms">Google Bard: Cool things you can do with the AI chatbot</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/ev-stocks-on-the-radar-these-five-rode-the-electric-vehicle-rally-in-the-last-year/slidelist/101011986.cms">EV stocks on the radar – These five rode the electric vehicle rally in the last year</a>

Tata Steel, Germany's SMS group to explore low carbon steel making technology

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Coffee is so popular that bean-growing crops are devastating the environment.</li><li>So some companies are using biotechnology to create viable coffee alternatives.</li></ul>Your morning cup of joe might be missing a key ingredient in the future: coffee beans.Coffee is so popular around the world that the vast crop requirements are devastating the environment. So some companies are seeking a more sustainable alternative.A handful of them are already using biotechnology and food science to create viable coffee replacements, <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/food-cooking/ynthetic-coffee-chocolate-climate-change-bfa9cce3">The Wall Street Journal reported</a>.<a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.atomocoffee.com/products/espresso-grounds-medium-roast-1lb">Atomo</a>, one of those companies, has launched a series of beanless products. Its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.atomocoffee.com/collections/all">Coachella Latte Blend</a> is a ground espresso made from things like date seeds, lemon, and guava. A one-pound bag of the regular and decaf versions both retail for $15.99.Other companies are relying on lab-grown cells from coffee plants, the Journal reported.<div type="image" title="Coffee beans and coffee" height="1414" width="2120" msid="109862227" hostid="261" sizebytes="137004"></div>Demand for coffee remains high, with the <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.ncausa.org/newsroom/nca-releases-atlas-of-american-coffee">National Coffee Association</a> reporting in 2020 that the average American drinks "just over 3 cups per day." The Journal reported that people worldwide drink two billion cups of coffee daily.This has led to mass deforestation, heightened carbon emissions, and low wages for the farmers who tend to the crops. The climate crisis is also making land typically suitable for coffee production unfit.The coffee industry is also eyeing a possible <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coffee-prices-vietnam-robusta-futures-high-asia-expensive-drought-espresso-2024-4">price surge</a> in the future as El Niño causes a drought in Vietnam, which produces the largest amount of the robusta coffee variety in the world, Bloomberg reported in April.Beanless coffee and other alternatives might be a good solution to all these coffee woes. But much like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/politicians-dragging-lab-grown-cultured-meat-into-culture-wars-2024-4">the lab-grown and alternative meat industry</a>, convincing consumers to try it might be the biggest challenge of all.

No bean coffee made from things like date seeds may be in our near future

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="45830" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bill-Gates">Bill Gates</keyword> is considering Glenrock, Wyoming, for his next-generation nuclear power plant. </li><li>The plant could replace 200 jobs that are at risk as a local <keyword id="6356966" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coal">coal</keyword> plant closes, the mayor said.</li><li>Gates' company TerraPower is running the project with Warren Buffett-owned PacifiCorp. </li></ul>A small town in Wyoming is hoping that Bill Gates will pick it for his upcoming $1 billion next-generation nuclear power plant, which could save hundreds of local jobs.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-terrapower-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-2018-10">TerraPower</a>, Gates' nuclear-power company, is considering Glenrock, Wyoming, for its first advanced Natrium reactor, per the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-wyoming-technology-environment-and-nature-government-and-politics-c647adc5f4a447eaef1c4ec28464e153">Associated Press (AP)</a>. Gates has said the reactor would be safer and cost less than a traditional nuclear reactor.A coal-fired power plant in Glenrock is due to shut in 2027, according to <a href="https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/integrated-resource-plan/2019_IRP_Volume_I.pdf">plans published</a> by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-energy-companies-remotely-raised-smart-thermostats-temperatures-2021-6">energy company</a> PacifiCorp, the plant's owner. The plant, called the Dave Johnston Power Plant, employs nearly 200 people from Glenrock and two nearby towns, <a href="https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/news/troubling-future-of-coal-hits-dave-johnston-plant/article_a42d355a-421f-5647-ac3f-50d1f0b2289b.html">Wyoming News</a> reported.Glenrock Mayor Bruce Roumell <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/wyoming-bill-gates-terrapower-nuclear-replace-coal-jobs?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20foxbusiness%2Flatest%20%28Internal%20-%20Latest%20News%20-%20Text%290Text%29">told Fox Business</a> that the site could more than make up for lost coal jobs. "We've been told it'll be close to 250 people," Roumell told Fox Business when asked how many jobs could be created. "They've also said there would be around 1,500 people in the construction phase. That's a pretty good influx into this area for us." TerraPower is running the Natrium project with PacifiCorp - owned by billionaire <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-warren-buffett-spends-net-worth-philanthropy-2018-10">Warren Buffett</a> - and plans to <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/next-gen-nuclear-plant-and-jobs-are-coming-wyoming">open the plant by 2028.</a> The Natrium reactor could be a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/easy-ways-to-mitigate-climate-change-lower-your-carbon-footprint">carbon-free energy</a> source for about 400,000 homes during peak demand, <a href="https://www.terrapower.com/natrium-demo-wyoming-coal-plant/">TerraPower said in a press release</a>. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-companies-that-will-profit-from-the-clean-energy-movement">UBS lays out the case for buying these 47 stocks across 11 sectors that are 'preferred winners' from a $140 trillion transition to clean energy that will transform the industry</a>Gates said in a June <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHzwwtSTbxY&amp;t=558s558s">press briefing</a> that the Natirum reactor, which uses liquid sodium as its coolant instead of water, would be safer and cost less than a traditional nuclear reactor. In October 2020, the US Department of <keyword id="6357014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="energy">Energy</keyword> awarded the project $80 million in initial funding, per a TerraPower <a href="https://www.terrapower.com/doe-natrium-demonstration-award/">press release</a>. In June, TerraPower said in a <a href="https://www.terrapower.com/natrium-demo-wyoming-coal-plant/">press release</a> that it would <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warren-buffett-nuclear-reactor-wyoming-terrapower-pacificorp-2021-6">select a town in Wyoming</a> for its first reactor project, and that it would announce the site by the end of the year. Gillette, Kemmerer, and Rock Springs are the three other towns under consideration, per the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-wyoming-technology-environment-and-nature-government-and-politics-c647adc5f4a447eaef1c4ec28464e153">AP</a>.TerraPower previously said the project would cost about $1 billion, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclearpower-terrapower-idUSKBN25N2U8">Reuters reported</a>. Fox Business said that nearly all of Glenrock's residents it spoke to were excited at the idea of TerraPower moving into town. "We've got to do something," resident Deb Schell told Fox Business. "I think it's the wave of the future. Coal is on its way out so we have to do something."TerraPower and PacifiCorp did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

A small Wyoming town is hoping Bill Gates' $1 billion nuclear power plant could save hundreds of jobs

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet"></a><div type="image" title="The Seabound team inside one of its containers part way through the first onboard installation." height="786" width="1000" msid="102914885" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Shipping produces about 3% of the world's annual greenhouse-gas emissions.</li><li>The UN's International Maritime Organization has set a 2050 target for the industry to get to net zero.</li><li>The Y Combinator-backed Seabound believes its on board carbon-capture tech can play a key role.</li></ul>Alisha Fredriksson didn't expect to be living on a cargo ship this summer. Luckily, she and her team are taking the three-month stints in turns.Fredriksson is the cofounder and CEO of Seabound, a climate-tech startup that aims to lower the greenhouse-gas emissions produced by the shipping industry.Seabound, backed by the famed accelerator Y Combinator, has built a carbon-capture machine that can be retrofitted onto ships. It absorbs CO2 from the exhaust gas and turns it into limestone pebbles, which can then be sold as a building material.From avocados to clothing, about <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/board-of-trade-report-maritime/embracing-the-ocean-a-board-of-trade-paper-web-version#:~:text=Global%20maritime%20sector%20trends,-While%20sometimes%20overlooked&amp;text=Approximately%2090%25%20of%20traded%20goods,countries'%20trade%20costs%20and%20competitiveness." target="_blank" rel="noopener">90% of traded goods</a> are carried on the ocean. As the backbone of global trade, shipping is responsible for <a href="https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/Global-shipping-GHG-emissions-2013-2015_ICCT-Report_17102017_vF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3% of annual greenhouse-gas emissions</a> — a figure the industry must slash. The UN's International Maritime Organization recently set a goal for the sector to reach <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/Pages/Revised-GHG-reduction-strategy-for-global-shipping-adopted-.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">net zero "by or around"</a> 2050. Net zero means to balance out the amount of emissions that are emitted with those that are removed from the atmosphere. Shipping, along with aviation and steelmaking, is considered a hard-to-abate industry because of its global complexities and reliance on fossil fuels.It could cost up to<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/news/2020/jan/decarbonisation-shipping-will-take-place-land-well-sea#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20study%2C%20the,total%20to%20%241.4%20%2D%201.9%20trillion." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $1.9 trillion</a> to decarbonize shipping, a 2020 study by University College London and the environmental consultancy University Maritime Advisory Services found. "Shipping now faces a much harder challenge than it would have done had it been better at adapting and improving over the last 10 to 20 years. It's become very urgent now," said Stephen Turnock, the head of the engineering school at Southampton University, of the International Maritime Organization's latest guidance. Some form of carbon capture will be needed for shipping to "keep the world spinning" as it moves toward more sustainable practices, said Ed Phillips, a partner at the impact-investment fund Future Planet Capital.<div type="image" title="Seabound cofounders Alisha Fredriksson and Roujia Wen" height="480" width="640" msid="102914887" hostid="261"></div><h2>Piloting the technology on board </h2>Seabound's end goal is to capture 95% of the carbon produced by a ship, though its current prototype captures only a small fraction of that. Having tested it on land, Seabound is now using a commercial container ship as its lab in a pilot project with the London-based shipping company Lomar Shipping.Seabound moved the prototype from its London research-and-development facility to a shipyard in Yalova, Turkey, where it has been installed on a midsize ship that can carry about 3,200 containers, Fredriksson said. Her team will take turns living on board to test the equipment in a real maritime environment. The equipment connects to the ship's exhaust, which flows through a reactor full of pebbles made of calcium-oxide – otherwise known as quicklime, limestone without the CO2. Then a mineralization process takes place where carbon dioxide binds to the pebbles to essentially become limestone. The fumes, now cleaner, are released through an outlet pipe. The limestone is temporarily stored on board and replaced with fresh calcium-oxide pebbles when the ship docks. The startup's opportunity is threefold: Seabound sells the carbon-capture device to ship owners, runs a subscription service for pebble collections to make it easy for shipowners to source new pebbles and offload used ones, and then sells the limestone pebbles to be used as a building material or to be sequestered.If the pilot goes well, the team will start designing and testing a new, bigger version of the device that will be its first product. "We will need some time to basically build that first product, so we want to move out of prototyping land and into actually having a product at a meaningful scale for our customers," Fredriksson said. "Then once we have really tested that on land, that's when we put the first full-scale version on a ship again." <div type="image" title="The Seabound team installing their equipment inside a shipping container onboard." height="1024" width="768" msid="102914888" hostid="261"></div><h2>Energy and weight challenges </h2>Ships usually get lighter through their voyage because they use up fuel, but capturing carbon means storing it on board in some form, which adds weight, according to Turnock. "It might need a little more power to go through the water," he said. It's likely a small amount of power, he added, but it's compounded by the weight and size of the carbon-capture device itself. "If it's quite heavy, then it usually has to be low down on the ship, and then there might be difficulty to find the necessary volume to actually fit the system in without losing cargo capacity.""Shipowners are loath to lose cargo-carrying capacity because that's what makes them their money," Turnock said.In its first pilot, Seabound placed its equipment into five shipping containers stacked on top of each other on the ship. It may require owners to sacrifice "a little bit of cargo" within the ship's max capacity, and "fuel consumption is relative to that capacity," Fredriksson said. Fredriksson added that Seabound's reaction was exothermic, meaning it needed an injection of heat to get started but then was self-sustaining. It has a "very negligible energy consumption on board," she said. <div type="image" title="The ship that Seabound has installed its pilot equipment onto." height="769" width="1024" msid="102914890" hostid="261"></div><h2>Decarbonization requires all hands on deck</h2>There are a handful of other approaches to maritime carbon capture, such as using the captured carbon to <a href="https://valuemaritime.com/videos/#:~:text=Value%20Maritime%20has%20developed%20an,can%20be%20charged%20and%20discharged." target="_blank" rel="noopener">charge a CO2 battery</a>, but overall it's a very nascent space. "It's not an industry, it's an emerging category," Fredriksson said. "What's interesting is that we're actually all trying different approaches," she added. "It's our responsibility as technology innovators or developers to figure out how we can work strategically or creatively within existing infrastructural constraints."Fredriksson said there were a host of creative ways being pursued to address the shipping industry's emissions. "If we were all trying the same thing, it would be kind of silly."Carbon capture aside, electric ships or alternative fuels are favored by others. Maersk, one of the largest container carriers in the world, is <a href="https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2022/11/16/maersk-and-carbon-sink-sign-strategic-partnership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">betting on green methanol as a fuel,</a> while other startups hope <a href="https://www.axios.com/pro/climate-deals/2023/06/01/acel-power-candela-x-shore-big-electric-boat-investment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electrification will take off</a>. "We're focused more on the opportunity with e-methanol, with ammonia, hydrogen, and electrification; it's just avoiding being leapfrogged," said Future Planet Capital's Phillips. "As an investor with a long-term view, sometimes backing a technology that solves an issue in the short-term can be a risk in itself." Still, Seabound's tech looks "pretty elegant" to the outsider. Leapfrogging doesn't make sense when <a href="https://www.globalmaritimeforum.org/content/2023/04/the-shipping-industrys-fuel-choices-on-the-path-to-net-zero_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most ships today run on </a>fossil fuels and are still being ordered, Fredriksson said. Ships typically have a 30-year lifespan, she added. The cost of a complete overhaul to an electric fleet or one that runs on alternative fuel would be "prohibitively expensive" while the technologies themselves are still immature, she added. At scale, Seabound intends to retrofit ships when they are in dry docks for routine maintenance. Turnock expects to see a patchwork of technologies emerge. The best solution will depend on whether it's a short-distance ferry or a cargo ship sailing the high seas, he said. "I don't think there's a magic bullet out there.""We should be thinking about solutions which are overall good for the environment and make sense, not just ways of bookkeeping CO2 so we're just displacing the problem," he added.

How Y Combinator-backed Seabound is using carbon-capture tech to tackle the shipping industry's problematic emissions

<keyword id="18530965" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="southampton-southampton" source="Orion">Southampton Southampton</keyword>, Aug 25 (The Conversation) <keyword id="75770" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coral-reefs" source="Orion">Coral reefs</keyword> thrive in parts of the world's oceans that are low in nutrients. This mystery has puzzled scientists for centuries and has become known as the "Darwin paradox of coral reefs". Our new study adds the missing piece of the puzzle. We found that many species of coral cultivate and feed on the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. This vegetarian diet allows the corals to tap into a large pool of nutrients that was previously considered unavailable to them. Stony corals are soft-bodied animals made up of many individual polyps that live together as a colony. They secrete limestone skeletons that form the foundation of reefs. The coral polyps acquire nutritious compounds rich in nitrogen and phosphorus by catching prey like zooplankton with their tentacles. Many coral animals are also dependent on a <keyword id="6527304" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="symbiosis" source="Orion">symbiosis</keyword> - a mutually beneficial relationship - with the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. These photosynthetic algae produce large amounts of carbon-rich compounds, such as sugars, and transfer them to the host coral to generate energy. However, as most photosynthetic products are deficient in nitrogen and phosphorous, they cannot sustain the growth of the animals. Our findings suggest that, while coral animals may survive brief periods of starvation by feeding on their symbionts, some coral reefs could face the risk of prolonged nutrient deficiency due to global warming. This is concerning. Coral reefs are important underwater ecosystems that provide a home and feeding ground for countless organisms, sustaining around 25% of the world's ocean biodiversity. Vegetarian diet The symbiotic algae living within the corals are very efficient at taking up dissolved inorganic nutrients, like nitrate and phosphate, from the surrounding seawater. Even in nutrient-poor areas of the ocean, these compounds are present in considerable amounts as excretion products of organisms, such as sponges, that live close by. Ocean currents can also transport these nutrients to reefs. The coral host, on the other hand, cannot absorb or use nitrate and phosphate directly. But, through a series of long-term laboratory experiments, we demonstrated that corals actually digest some of their symbiont population to access the nitrogen and phosphorus that these algae absorb from the water. To provide evidence that the nutrients accumulated by the growing coral tissue originated from the symbionts, we supplied the corals with a chemical form of nitrogen that can only be absorbed from the water by the symbionts, not by the coral host. This nutrient compound was marked by a technique called isotopic labelling, which uses nitrogen atoms that are heavier than normal. These "heavy" isotopes allowed us to track the movement of nitrogen between the partners of the symbiosis by ultrasensitive detection methods. With this method, we could unambiguously demonstrate that the nitrogen atoms that sustained the growth of the coral tissue were derived from the dissolved inorganic nutrients that were fed to their symbiont algae. Our data suggest that most species of symbiotic corals can supplement their nutrition through such a vegetarian diet. From the laboratory to the ocean Together with our colleagues, we also analysed corals growing around remote islands in the <keyword id="12350" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indian-ocean" source="Orion">Indian Ocean</keyword>, some with seabirds on them and some without. Our results show that corals have the potential to farm and feed on their symbiont algae in the wild too. The reefs around some of these islands are supplied with substantial amounts of nutrients that come from "guano" - the excrement of seabirds nesting on the islands. On some of the other islands, seabird colonies have been decimated by invasive rats. The reefs surrounding these islands receive fewer nutrients. We measured the growth of staghorn coral colonies both around islands with and without dense seabird populations and found that growth was more than twice as fast on reefs that were supplied with <keyword id="18530966" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="seabird-nutrients" source="Orion">seabird nutrients</keyword>. About half of the nitrogen molecules in the tissue of the coral animals from islands with seabirds could be traced back to uptake by the symbiont algae. Global warming could complicate matters In the future, some coral reefs could face a decrease in nutrient availability due to global warming. Research suggests that warming surface waters are less likely to receive nutrients from deeper water layers. The reduced water productivity could result in fewer nutrients for their symbionts and subsequently less food for the coral animals. Our study indicates that some coral reefs might become vulnerable to starvation as ocean temperatures warm. When we moved corals from water with ample nutrients to water with fewer nutrients, they continued to eat their symbiont algae. This behaviour allowed them to sustain their growth for a few weeks, even in the absence of feeding. But once they had exhausted their population of symbiotic algae, the coral underwent bleaching (referring to the white appearance of the corals with low symbiont numbers in their tissue), stopped growing - and in some cases eventually died. Our findings reveal that corals can not only acquire nitrogen and phosphorus by feeding on prey as other animals do. But, by eating parts of their symbiont stock, they can also efficiently tap into the pool of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus that is otherwise only accessible to plants. Through this process, symbiotic corals gain an advantage over other animals in environments that are low in nutrients, explaining their prominent role in the formation of reefs in nutrient-poor water. However, increasingly severe nutrient depletion will add a further threat to some coral reefs already experiencing bleaching caused by heat stress.(The Conversation) AMS AMS

How coral reefs turn vegetarian to thrive in oceans low in nutrients

<keyword id="6368035" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="essar" source="Orion">Essar</keyword> Oil UK Limited has announced its plan to build a 360 million-pound major new carbon capture plant at its <keyword id="505019" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="stanlow" source="Orion">Stanlow</keyword> refinery in line with its ambition to become a leading low-carbon refinery by 2030. Essar is investing over 1 billion pounds into a range of energy efficiency, fuel-switching, and carbon capture initiatives, designed to decarbonise its production processes significantly by 2030 and put Essar at the forefront of the UK's shift to low-carbon energy. Essar's energy transition strategy is based on five principles: running the core Stanlow refining processes as efficiently and safely as possible; decarbonising Stanlow's operations; building a hydrogen future through the launch of <keyword id="13037257" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vertex-hydrogen" source="Orion">Vertex Hydrogen</keyword> ("Vertex") and as a key part of the HyNet consortium; developing green fuels (including Sustainable Aviation Fuels); and establishing the UK's largest biofuels storage facility through Stanlow Terminals Limited. Essar will achieve its decarbonisation targets through a combination of incremental (energy efficiency and operating improvements) and transformational projects, including the 360 million-pound carbon capture plant announced, but also as a result of the significant investments, Essar is making into hydrogen and biofuels. Kent plc has been awarded a pre-FEED engineering contract to develop the facility that will take the CO2 emitted from one of <keyword id="28249" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="europe" source="Orion">Europe</keyword>'s largest full-Residue Fluidised Catalytic Cracking units, located at the Stanlow refinery. The gas will be permanently sequestered into depleted gas fields under the sea in Liverpool Bay, as part of the HyNet cluster infrastructure in the northwest of England. Once complete in 2027, the plant will eliminate an estimated 0.81 million tons of CO2 per year -- the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road, eliminating nearly 40% of all Stanlow emissions. The project has been selected by BEIS as a Phase-2 winner in the CCUS cluster sequencing process earlier this summer, and as such, is currently progressing through the due diligence stage. <keyword id="1598500" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="deepak-maheshwari" source="Orion">Deepak Maheshwari</keyword>, CEO of Essar Oil UK said: "This new carbon capture plant is the single biggest initiative to decarbonise our processes and a core element to our hugely ambitious decarbonisation strategy. Our ambition is to become a leading low-carbon refinery. This is a massive undertaking, but it is a journey we are fully committed to. Not only is it the right environmental thing to do, it will future-proof the critical Stanlow refinery for the long term, protecting jobs and industry, while also placing Stanlow at the very centre of the UK's energy transition." Essar is already making rapid progress against its broader decarbonisation targets. In September, EOUK announced it had signed a 'Heads of Terms' offtake agreement with Vertex, a joint venture with Progressive Energy, for the supply of 280MW+ of hydrogen. The hydrogen will be used to help decarbonise Essar's existing production facilities including the new hydrogen-powered furnace which was delivered in August this year. The 45 million-pound furnace is the first of its kind in the UK, capable of running on a 100 per cent hydrogen source and will replace three existing furnaces at Stanlow. Vertex is developing the first large-scale, low-carbon hydrogen production hub in the UK, as part of the HyNet cluster. This will produce (in its initial phases) 1GW of hydrogen (the equivalent energy use of a large UK city like Liverpool) and capture some 1.8 million tonnes of carbon per annum. By 2030, Vertex expects to deliver nearly 4GW of low-carbon hydrogen, equivalent to 40 per cent of the UK government's national target. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/uber-passengers-now-connect-with-city-police-in-case-of-emergency-with-the-sos-button/articleshow/95879290.cms">Uber passengers now connect with city police in case of emergency with the SOS button</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/samsung-india-will-hire-1000-engineers-from-top-institutes-for-rd-units/articleshow/95882077.cms">Samsung India will hire 1,000 engineers from top institutes for R&amp;D units</a>

Essar Oil UK to build carbon capture facility

<div type="image" title="One Planet Banner Test" height="138" width="1100" msid="101402909" hostid="261" sizebytes="5076"></div>Do you remember your very first cellphone?Where is it now? Maybe you passed it on to a friend, traded it in for an upgrade, or sold it. Maybe it's still lurking somewhere in your home, abandoned in a drawer.It takes a lot of resources to make a smartphone. It's estimated that the production of a typical smartphone uses around <a href="https://www.twosides.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/mind-your-step-report-76803.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12,760 liters of water,</a> which is equivalent to around 160 bathtubs full of water. The manufacturing process is energy-intensive, too, with the production of an average smartphone emitting 60 kilograms of carbon dioxide, <a href="https://green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Design_for_a_circular_economy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Green Alliance</a>, an independent think tank focused on environmental policy. It's not just smartphone manufacturing that has a big environmental impact. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to the Environmental Protection Agency,</a> manufacturing is the third-largest contributor to US greenhouse-gas emissions, after transportation and electric power. The sector also accounts for 25% of the nation's energy consumption.More often than not, the products we consume have been made from newly extracted materials. The amount of resources that we extract has <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/global" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than tripled since 1970</a>, with global material consumption totaling <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 100 billion tons every year.</a> But while consumption rates have shot up, recycling rates have remained low. Just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/22/worlds-consumption-of-materials-hits-record-100bn-tonnes-a-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8.6% of the materials that we consume each year are recycled.</a><h2>Could a circular economy make a difference?</h2>Some industry leaders think there's a solution for cutting down on waste and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at the same time: the circular economy. Try to visualize it. Right now, we have a linear system. We extract materials, make them into products, use the products, and then dispose of them. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity committed to creating a circular economy, calls this a <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"take-make-waste" system</a>. Think back to your first cellphone: It's probably at the "waste" stage right now.The idea of a circular economy is to take that "straight line" system and turn it into a closed loop. The basic idea is to keep materials in the loop for as long as possible. Imagine if components from your first cellphone were extracted and used in your current one, or if it was easy to upgrade and repair your first cellphone so you could still use it today.<a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/global" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research by the Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative</a> found that only 7.2% of the global economy is currently circular.There are several ways to create a circular economy. It starts with designing products that last as long as possible and are easy to repair. Once a product can no longer be repaired, it can be remanufactured — which is when you disassemble a product and make a new version of the product with used parts. Recycling — when materials are repurposed into a new product and put back together again — is the final step. When you recycle, you are using waste as a resource.Alice Bodreau, the partnership lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said that there are three pillars of a circular-economy strategy: developing products that don't create waste and pollution, circulating the materials that you put on the market, and regenerating nature.Anne Velenturf, a senior research fellow at the University of Leeds, told Insider that adopting a circular economy does not mean that consumers lose out. "Research has shown that we can all still live a good-quality life when resources are better shared across society," she said.<h2>Waste is a resource</h2>Recycling doesn't just tackle our waste problem; it helps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. That's because recycled materials skip a large part of the energy-intensive extraction and manufacturing process. The production of recycled steel, for instance, requires <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/completing-the-picture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% to 15% of the energy required to produce new steel.</a>The issue, though, is that not everything is easy to recycle. Think about the phone or computer that you're reading this article on. It's made up of lots of different materials and minerals.This problem is something that Peter Afiuny was thinking about when he cofounded the magnet-manufacturing company <a href="https://noveon.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Noveon</a>. "In the late '80s and early '90s, all of the stuff that we were consuming as a society started to become more complex in its product, in terms of the components that are used," Afiuny told Insider. "The waste industry didn't really catch up to how to extract the more critical components."Afiuny, who had previously worked in the recycling industry, wanted to find an efficient way to "surgically extract" components that would otherwise be discarded.Cue the creation of Noveon, a company that manufactures rare-earth magnets from recycled materials. According to Afiuny, postconsumer recycling rates for rare-earth magnetic materials are less than 3%. The traditional "mine-to-magnet" process consists of a lot of energy-intensive and waste-intensive steps and uses potentially dangerous chemicals. "We essentially invented a process that bypassed all of these upstream methods," Afiuny said.Many things need permanent magnets, including products that are essential for the green transition such as electric vehicles and wind turbines."Most of our magnetic materials come from end-of-life channels, so that includes motors, energy systems, medical devices, data-storage devices like hard disk drives," Afiuny said.Afiuny told Insider that he saw Noveon's manufacturing approach as part of a wider shift in the industry. "I think that there is just more generally a trend towards developing regional supply chains, especially as companies are becoming global entities and they're looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint," he said.<h2>Design matters</h2>Bodreau said that there's more to the circular economy than recycling."Recycling is like you have a water leak in your house and you just go and directly mop it up and try to mop everything up before doing anything else," she said. "While the circular economy is about putting the tap off and actually addressing the leak itself, and not just mopping the floor and keeping on mopping the floor forever and ever."One way to "turn the tap off" is through design. Bodreau said it's about "redesigning the way you operate and the way your product is designed that it will never end up as a leak in the world."That's the principle the electronics company <a href="https://www.fairphone.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fairphone</a> is putting into practice. Based in Amsterdam, the company manufactures just two types of products: smartphones and headphones. Their smartphones aren't glued shut and are easy to disassemble, which makes them much easier to repair."Seventy-five percent of the emissions connected to a smartphone occur during production," Anna Jopp, Fairphone's press officer, told Insider. "To us, this means that the most efficient way to reduce the emissions caused by smartphones is to produce less phones. And the way to achieve this is to use the phones we already have for as long as possible."If you keep your phone for five years instead of three you could reduce the phone's annual carbon footprint by 31%, Jopp said.Since phone longevity is key, Jopp said Fairfone tries to encourage people to keep their phones as long as possible by making products that are modular by design and easily repairable. "The longer a product is used, the fewer new products we need to manufacture and the less resources we use," she said.<h2>The renewable challenge</h2>The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that there will be <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/articles/we-need-to-talk-about-renewables-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">43 million tons of wind-turbine blade waste by 2050.</a> Meanwhile, the Renewable Energy Agency estimates that there will be up to <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Jun/End-of-life-management-Solar-Photovoltaic-Panels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">78 million tons of solar-panel waste</a> by 2050. The renewable-energy industry presents a new challenge for the circular economy, and the UK company ReBlade is trying to get ahead of the game. ReBlade's cofounder Fiona Lindsay told Insider that the team wanted to stop material from wind turbines from going to landfills. While many parts of wind turbines can be recycled, the wind-turbine blades are made from fiberglass, a nonbiodegradable manufactured composite that is extremely difficult to recycle. The company is working on solutions to repurpose wind-turbine blades when they can no longer be used to generate power. Their flagship project uses decommissioned blades to create canopies that provide shelter at electric-vehicle charging points.Lindsay said that the "newness" of the sector was a big obstacle. "Until now, blades have only needed to come down in tiny numbers, perhaps because of damage," she said."In the years ahead, blades will come down in their thousands as whole wind-farm sites are repowered with bigger turbines," she said. "What that means is that the owner-operators of sites don't, as of yet, have standardized approaches to procurement or blade-removal operations.""It takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources to produce the blades in the first place, so we believe reusing them is a better option," Lindsay said.<h2>A 'win-win' solution</h2>Velenturf said that there were many benefits for companies adopting circular-economy principles, including accessing new markets and customers and increasing the security of material supplies, which reduces risks and costs.Policymakers are starting to catch on to circular solutions, too. In June, representatives from 180 countries met in Paris and discussed a global treaty to regulate plastics. Bodreau described the meeting as a "big, big way forward." Meanwhile, New York state's recent <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-digital-fair-repair-act-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Fair Repair Act</a> aims to make it easier for consumers to access the parts and information needed to repair their electronic devices.For Lindsay, the circular approach is a no-brainer. "We have a finite amount of resources so we need to find innovative new ways to reuse resources through second- or even third-life uses after they have been used in their initial applications — a win-win for everybody."This article is part of "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/the-great-transition" rel="">The Great Transition</a>," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Planet</a> hub.

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