Researchers have used isotopes of carbon to trace how carbon dioxide emissions could be converted into low-carbon fuels and chemicals. The result could help the chemical industry, which is the third largest subsector in terms of direct CO2 emissions, recycle its own waste using current manufacturing processes.
As the climate emergency and cost-of-living crisis focus our minds on how to reduce energy, a group of scientists have highlighted the hidden environmental cost behind some of our major breakthroughs.
Researchers have developed an efficient concept to turn carbon dioxide into clean, sustainable fuels, without any unwanted by-products or waste.
Researchers have developed a standalone device that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into a carbon-neutral fuel, without requiring any additional components or electricity.
Researchers have found that pulse-like releases of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere are a pervasive feature of the carbon cycle and that they are closely connected to major changes in Atlantic Ocean circulation.
Cambridge University has committed to dramatically reducing its carbon footprint. But making a meaningful difference will involve tackling the culture of international travel that runs deeply through academia.
An international collaboration between universities and industry will further develop carbon capture and storage technology – one of the best hopes for drastically reducing carbon emissions – so that it can be deployed in a wider range of sites around the world.
Researchers have found that the formation and breakup of supercontinents over hundreds of millions of years controls volcanic carbon emissions. The results, reported in the journal Science, could lead to a reinterpretation of how the carbon cycle has evolved over Earth’s history, and how this has impacted the evolution of Earth’s habitability.
Study of natural-occurring 100,000 year-old CO2 reservoirs shows no significant corroding of ‘cap rock’, suggesting the greenhouse gas hasn’t leaked back out - one of the main concerns with greenhouse gas reduction proposal of carbon capture and storage.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge is to lead a delegation of academics to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, in January 2016, to explore issues including carbon reduction technologies and how science and engineering can best address society's greatest challenges.
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