Christopher J. Rhodes

Oil from algae; salvation from peak oil?

A review is presented of the use of algae principally to produce biodiesel fuel, as a replacement for conventional fuel derived from petroleum. The imperative for such a strategy is that cheap supplies of crude oil will begin to wane within a decade and land-based crops cannot provide more than a small amount of the fuel the world currently uses, even if food production were allowed to be severely compromised. For comparison, if one tonne of biodiesel might be produced say, from rape-seed per hectare, that same area of land might ideally yield 100 tonnes of biodiesel grown from algae. Placed into perspective, the entire world annual petroleum demand which is now provided for by 31 billion barrels of crude oil might instead be met from algae grown on an area equivalent to 4% of that of the United States. As an additional benefit, in contrast to growing crops it is not necessary to use arable land, since pond-systems might be placed anywhere, even in deserts, and since algae grow well on saline water or wastewaters, no additional burden is imposed on freshwater–a significant advantage, as water shortages threaten. Algae offer the further promise that they might provide future food supplies, beyond what can be offered by land-based agriculture to a rising global population.

Properties and applications of zeolites.

Zeolites are aluminosilicate solids bearing a negatively charged honeycomb framework of micropores into which molecules may be adsorbed for environmental decontamination, and to catalyse chemical reactions. They are central to green-chemistry since the necessity for organic solvents is minimised. Proton-exchanged (H) zeolites are extensively employed in the petrochemical industry for cracking crude oil fractions into fuels and chemical feedstocks for other industrial processes. Due to their ability to perform cation-exchange, in which the cations that are originally present to counterbalance the framework negative charge may be exchanged out of the zeolite by cations present in aqueous solution, zeolites are useful as industrial water-softeners, in the removal of radioactive Cs+ and Sr2+ cations from liquid nuclear waste and in the removal of toxic heavy metal cations from groundwaters and run-off waters. Surfactant-modified zeolites (SMZ) find particular application in the co-removal of both toxic anions and organic pollutants. Toxic anions such as arsenite, arsenate, chromate, cyanide and radioactive iodide can also be removed by adsorption into zeolites that have been previously loaded with co-precipitating metal cations such as Ag+ and Pb2+ which form practically insoluble complexes that are contained within the zeolite matrix.

Feeding and healing the world: through regenerative agriculture and permaculture.

The study of soil is a mature science, whereas related practical methods of regenerative agriculture and permaculture are not. However, despite a paucity of detailed peer reviewed research published on these topics, there is overwhelming evidence both that the methods work and they may offer the means to address a number of prevailing environmental challenges, e.g. peak oil, climate change, carbon capture, unsustainable agriculture and food shortages, peak phosphorus (phosphate), water shortages, environmental pollution, desert reclamation, and soil degradation. What is lacking is a proper scientific study, made in hand with actual development projects. By elucidating the scientific basis of these remarkable phenomena, we may obtain the means for solving some of the otherwise insurmountable problems confronting humanity, simply by observing, and working with, the patterns and forces of nature. This article is intended as a call to arms to make serious investment in researching and actualising these methods on a global scale. Despite claims that peak oil is no longer a threat because vast resources of gas and shale oil (tight oil) can now be recovered by fracking (hydraulic fracturing) combined with horizontal drilling, the reality is that proven actual reserves are only adequate to delay the peak by a few years. Furthermore, because of the rapid depletion rates of flow from gas wells and oil wells that are accessed by fracking, it will be necessary to drill continuously and relentlessly to maintain output, and there are material limits of equipment, technology and trained personnel to do this. Moreover, to make any sensible difference to the liquid fuel crisis, which is the most immediate consequence of peak oil, it would be necessary to convert the worlds one billion vehicles to run on natural gas rather than liquid fuels refined from crude oil, and this would take some considerable time and effort. The loss of widespread personalised transportation is thus inevitable and imminent, meaning a loss of globalised civilisation and a mandatory return to living in smaller localised communities. Permaculture and regenerative agriculture offer potentially the means to provide food and materials on the small scale, and address the wider issues of carbon emissions, and resource shortages. Since over half the Worlds population lives in cities, it seems likely that strengthening the resilience of these environments, using urban permaculture, may be a crucial strategy in achieving a measured descent in our use of energy and other resources, rather than an abrupt collapse of civilization.

Electron spin resonance. Part one: a diagnostic method in the biomedical sciences.

A review is presented of some of the ways in which electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy may be useful to investigate systems of relevance to the biomedical sciences. Specifically considered are: spin-trapping in biological media; the determination of antioxidant efficiencies; lipid-peroxidation; the use of nitroxides as probes of metabolic activity in cells and as structural probes of cell-membranes; ESR coupled with materials for radiation-dosimetry; food- and drug-irradiation; studies of enzyme systems and of cyclodextrins; diagnosis of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis; measurement of oxidative stress in synovial tissue in preparation for joint replacement; determination of oxidative species during kidney dialysis; measurement of biological oxygen concentrations (oximetry); trapping in living cells of the endothelium-derived relaxing factor nitric oxide (NO); measurement of hydrogen peroxide; determination of drugs of abuse (opiates); ESR measurements of whole blood and as a means to determine the age of bloodstains for forensic analysis are surveyed, and also a determination of the aqueous volume of human sperm cells is described, among other topics.

The oil question: nature and prognosis.

A review is given of the nature and origins of crude oil (petroleum) along with factors relating to its production and demand for it. The modern globalised world economy and its population has grown on the assumption of limitless supplies of cheap crude oil. Almost all agriculture now is completely dependent on available oil and natural gas to run machinery and to make chemical fertilizers. Our complacent regard for oil is however invalid and a gap between the relentlessly rising demand for oil and its supply is expected to appear at some time in the period 2010–2015. The global peak in oil production “peak oil” predicted by M. King Hubbert in 1956, will exacerbate the situation, and the world must seek to run and organise itself in an imminent reality where supplies of conventional crude oil are both limited and increasingly expensive. Providing the equivalent of 30 billion barrels of oil a year as is currently used across the globe, by unconventional kinds of oil, e.g. from oil shale and tar sands is not realistic. Since most of the oil produced in the world is refined into liquid fuels to run transportation, human survival will depend on devising localised economies and communities that necessarily rely far less on personalised transport (cars).

Soil Erosion, Climate Change and Global Food Security: Challenges and Strategies

An overview is presented of the determined degree of global land degradation (principally occurring through soil erosion), with some consideration of its possible impact on global food security. Most determinations of the extent of land degradation (e.g. GLASOD) have been made on the basis of “expert judgement” and perceptions, as opposed to direct measurements of this multifactorial phenomenon. More recently, remote sensing measurements have been made which indicate that while some regions of the Earth are “browning” others are “greening”. The latter effect is thought to be due to fertilisation of the growth of biomass by increasing levels of atmospheric CO2, and indeed the total amount of global biomass was observed to increase by 3.8% during the years 1981–2003. Nonetheless, 24% of the Earths surface had occasioned some degree of degradation in the same time period. It appears that while long-term trends in NDVI (normalised difference vegetation index) derivatives are only broad indicators of land degradation, taken as a proxy, the NDVI/NPP (net primary productivity) trend is able to yield a benchmark that is globally consistent and to illuminate regions in which biologically significant changes are occurring. Thus, attention may be directed to where investigation and action at the ground level is required, i.e. to potential “hot spots” of land degradation and/or erosion. The severity of land degradation through soil erosion, and an according catastrophic threat to the survival of humanity may in part have been overstated, although the rising human population will impose inexorable demands for what the soil can provide. However, the present system of industrialised agriculture would not be possible without plentiful provisions of cheap crude oil and natural gas to supply fuels, pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. It is only on the basis of these inputs that it has been possible for the human population to rise above 7 billion. Hence, if the cheap oil and gas supply fails, global agriculture fails too, with obvious consequences. Accordingly, on grounds of stabilising the climate, preserving the environment, and ensuring the robustness of the global food supply, maintaining and building good soil, in particular improving its SOM content and hence its structure, is highly desirable. Those regions of the world that are significantly degraded are unlikely to support a massive population increase (e.g. Africa, whose population is predicted to grow from its present 1.1 billion to 4.2 billion by 2100), in which case a die-off or mass migration might be expected, if population control is not included explicitly in future plans to achieve food security.

Muonium--the second radioisotope of hydrogen: a remarkable and unique radiotracer in the chemical, materials, biological and environmental sciences.

Muonium (Mu), may be regarded as a radioactive hydrogen atom with a positive muon as its nucleus, and is formed in a range of media which are irradiated with positive muons. This exotic atom can be considered as a second radioisotope of hydrogen, along with tritium. Addition of this light atom (with a mass 1/9th that of a normal hydrogen, protium, atom) to unsaturated organic molecules forms free radicals, in which the muon serves as a radioactive and magnetic probe of their kinetic and structural properties. Suitable examples are chosen to illustrate the very large functionality of organic radicals which have been measured using muons and various methods of μSR, where μ stands for muon, S for spin and R may refer to rotation, resonance or relaxation. The principal techniques illustrated are transverse-field muon spin rotation (TF-μSR), avoided level crossing muon spin resonance (ALC-μSR) and longitudinal-field muon spin relaxation (LF-μSRx). Structural studies of radicals, the determination of mechanisms for radical formation, the measurement of radical stabilisation energies, the determination of the kinetics of reactions of free muonium atoms and of free radicals have all been accomplished using TF-μSR methods. It is further shown that TF-μSR is most useful in measuring radical reaction rates in non-aqueous media, to provide information of relevance to cell membrane damage and repair. Muonium may further be used as a mechanistic probe since it determines a true pattern of H-atom reactivity in molecules, against which results from similar radiolysed materials may be compared. [In many solid materials that are exposed to ionising radiation, apparent H-atom adduct radicals are detected but which originate from charge-neutralisation of positive holes (radical cations) and ejected electrons, without free H-atoms being formed. DNA is the superlative example of this. Free H-atoms normally feature in the province of radiolysed aqueous media]. The applications of ALC-μSR and LF-μSRx in studying the reorientation of reactive radicals on reactive surfaces forms the substantive proportion of the review: considered specifically are radicals sorbed in zeolites, in clays and in porous silica, in porous carbons and on ice-surfaces, in connection with their role as intermediates in catalytic systems, particularly hydrocarbon cracking and oxidation processes, and in atmospheric aerosol chemistry. The formation of muonium and other muon species in cation-exchanged zeolite-X samples are also considered, according to the evidence of longitudinal field repolarisation measurements. Finally, mention is given of the use of μSR techniques for studying radicals in the gas-phase.

Solar energy: principles and possibilities.

As the world faces an impending dearth of fossil fuels, most immediately oil, alternative sources of energy must be found. 174 PW worth of energy falls onto the top of the Earths atmosphere in the form of sunlight which is almost 10,000 times the total amount of energy used by humans on Earth, as taken from all sources, oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectric power combined. If even a fraction of this could be harvested efficiently, the energy crunch could in principle be averted. Various means for garnering energy from the Sun are presented, including photovoltaics (PV), thin film solar cells, quantum dot cells, concentrating PV and thermal solar power stations, which are more efficient in practical terms. Finally the prospects of space based (satellite) solar power are considered. The caveat is that even if the entire world electricity budget could be met using solar energy, the remaining 80% of energy which is not used as electricity but thermal power (heat) still needs to be found in the absence of fossil fuels. Most pressingly, the decline of cheap plentiful crude oil (peak oil) will not find a substitution via solar unless a mainly electrified transportation system is devised and it is debatable that there is sufficient time and conventional energy remaining to accomplish this. The inevitable contraction of transportation will default a deconstruction of the globalised world economy into that of a system of localised communities.

Peak phosphorus - peak food? The need to close the phosphorus cycle.

The peak in the world production of phosphorus has been predicted to occur in 2033, based on world reserves of rock phosphate (URR) reckoned at around 24,000 million tonnes (Mt), with around 18,000 Mt remaining. This figure was reckoned-up to 71,000 Mt, by the USGS, in 2012, but a production maximum during the present century is still highly probable. There are complex issues over what the demand will be for phosphorus in the future, as measured against a rising population (from 7 billion to over 9 billion in 2050), and a greater per capita demand for fertiliser to grow more grain, in part to feed animals and meet a rising demand for meat by a human species that is not merely more populous but more affluent. As a counterweight to this, we may expect that greater efficiencies in the use of phosphorus – including recycling from farms and of human and animal waste – will reduce the per capita demand for phosphate rock. The unseen game changer is peakoil, since phosphate is mined and recovered using machinery powered by liquid fuels refined from crude oil. Hence, peak oil and peak phosphorus might appear as conjoined twins. There is no unequivocal case that we can afford to ignore the likelihood of a supply-demand gap for phosphorus occurring sometime this century, and it would be perilous to do so.

Electron spin resonance. Part two: a diagnostic method in the environmental sciences.

A review is presented of some of the ways in which electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy may be useful to investigate systems of relevance to the environmental sciences. Specifically considered are: quantititave ESR, photo-catalysis for pollution control; sorption and mobility of molecules in zeolites; free radicals produced by mechanical action and by shock waves from explosives; measurement of peroxyl radicals and nitrate radicals in air; determination of particulate matter, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), soot and black carbon in air; estimation of nitrate and nitrite in vegetables and fruit; lipid-peroxidation by solid particles (silica, asbestos, coal dust); ESR of soils and other biogenic substances: formation of soil organic matter, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and no-till farming; detection of reactive oxygen species in the photosynthetic apparatus of higher plants under light stress; molecular mobility and intracellular glasses in seeds and pollen; molecular mobility in dry cotton; characterisation of the surface of carbon black used for chromatography; ESR dating for archaeology and determining seawater levels; measurement of the quality of tea-leaves by ESR; green-catalysts and catalytic media; studies of petroleum (crude oil); fuels; methane hydrate; fuel cells; photovoltaics; source rocks; kerogen; carbonaceous chondrites to find an ESR-based marker for extraterrestrial origin; samples from the Moon taken on the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions to understand space-weathering; ESR studies of organic matter in regard to oil and gas formation in the North Sea; solvation by ionic liquids as green solvents, ESR in food and nutraceutical research.