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Abstract Combusting fossil fuels to produce electricity is the single largest contributor to sector-level, anthropogenic carbon pollution. Because sector-wide policies are often too unwieldy to implement, however, some researchers have recommended reducing electricity-based CO2emissions by targeting the most extreme emitters of each nation’s electricity industry. Here, we use a unique international data source to measure national disproportionalities in power plant CO2emissions and estimate the fraction of each country’s electricity-based CO2emissions that would be reduced if its most profligate polluters lowered their emission intensities, switched to gas fuels, and incorporated carbon capture and storage systems. We find that countries’ disproportionalities vary greatly and have mostly grown over time. We also find that 17%–49% of the world’s CO2emissions from electricity generation could be eliminated depending on the intensity standards, fuels, or carbon capture technologies adopted by hyper-emitting plants. This suggests that policies aimed at improving the environmental performance of ‘super polluters’ are effective strategies for transitioning to decarbonized energy systems.
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The Green Lean Amine Machine: Harvesting Electric Power While Capturing Carbon Dioxide from Breath
Abstract As wearable technologies redefine the way people exchange information, receive entertainment, and monitor health, the development of sustainable power sources that capture energy from the user's everyday activities garners increasing interest. Electric fishes, such as the electric eel and the torpedo ray, provide inspiration for such a power source with their ability to generate massive discharges of electricity solely from the metabolic processes within their bodies. Inspired by their example, the device presented in this work harnesses electric power from ion gradients established by capturing the carbon dioxide (CO2) from human breath. Upon localized exposure to CO2, this novel adaptation of reverse electrodialysis chemically generates ion gradients from a single initial solution uniformly distributed throughout the device instead of requiring the active circulation of two different external solutions. A thorough analysis of the relationship between electrical output and the concentration of carbon capture agent (monoethanolamine, MEA), the amount of CO2captured, and the device geometry informs device design. The prototype device presented here harvests enough energy from a breath‐generated ion gradient to power small electronic devices, such as a light‐emitting diode (LED).
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- Award ID(s):
- 1844463
- PAR ID:
- 10366845
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Science
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 15
- ISSN:
- 2198-3844
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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