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Sealing in aircraft emissions
One of the most effective ways of cutting emissions from aircraft is to improve the efficiency of their means of propulsion – their turbines.
And one of the best ways of doing that is to reduce the amount of gas leaking from the turbines, Smith School researchers say in a new study.
Wear and tear makes turbines less efficient, forcing aircraft to use more fuel and emit more carbon.
Improving turbine seals to reduce gas leaks will increase efficiency and substantially cut emissions, the scientists say.
The research, by the Smith School’s Dr Chris Carey, Dr Oliver Inderwildi and Professor Sir David King, explains how the space, or clearance, between the blades of turbines and their protective casing expands with age, allowing more gas to leak and increasing fuel consumption.
For each extra 1mm of clearance, fuel use rises by one per cent. For a fleet of aircraft, that’s a significant amount of additional fuel.
Some gas must be allowed to escape to keep turbines cool and the material used to block leaks elsewhere – the seals – depends on how heat resistant that material must be.
Experts are developing more efficient seals to reduce unintended leakage but progress is slow and new seals may not be available for several years.
But the wait will be worth it, the researchers say in the Journal Aviation and the Environment. They add: “With US aviation expected to use approximately 19 billion gallons of aviation fuel in 2009, [a 1mm reduction in clearance alone] equates to a saving of 200 million gallons of fuel and subsequent savings in emissions, at a cost saving of nearly $400m in one year.”
Too many gaps in Arctic research
A new approach to Arctic research has begun, spearheaded by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
Experts from Norway, Australia, the US and UK are among members of a research group brought together by the School’s Dr Tavis Potts to investigate the impacts of climate change on the Arctic.
While glacial melting and warming of the seas are agreed, it is not clear how global warming will affect the marine and land-based life of the region, or the availability of gas and oil.
Dr Ray Leakey, a biologist from the Scottish Association for Marine Science and member of the new group, said: “As the snow and ice melts, the Arctic land and ocean will become darker and absorb more heat, and the growing season will become longer. But more freshwater run-off into the sea could stop nutrients being mixed into surface waters and therefore slow plant growth in the ocean.”
“There are a lot of subtleties we just don’t understand and we are long way from predicting exactly what’s going on. Changes are likely to be poorly predicted or unpredictable but we must still prepare for change. Marine life can adapt, move north, or die.”
The 16-member group, which includes scientists, lawyers and experts in the region’s indigenous people, hopes to win funding for wide-ranging research. The effect of climate change on Arctic shipping could be one of the first areas the coalition studies.
Melting ice means the Northwest Passage, a sea route through the Arctic Ocean linking Europe to Asia, could be navigable for longer periods of the year.
Professor Ian Townsend-Gault, an international lawyer based in British Columbia, said: “How will a Korean shipping company know the requirements of the Canadian government? They will need help with that.”
Researchers may also investigate the impact of warming on indigenous peoples. Oregon State University anthropologist, Dr Deanna Kingston, is from King Island, west of Alaska, and has maintained her links with the King Island Inupiat who now live on the mainland. She said many Alaskans lived at subsistence levels and were dependent either on marine mammals, such as whales and walrus, or on land mammals like Caribou.
“Offshore developments can affect marine mammals and onshore oil drilling affects the Caribou. That does not come into environmental impact assessments,” she said.
The Arctic is warming more quickly than any other part of the world. The thickness of Arctic ice is just 60% of its 1970s depth. The plight of the polar bear, which depends on sea ice to live, is well documented but much less is known of the effects of climate change on other wildlife especially the impact of warming seas on fish and smaller aquatic creatures.
Less still is known of the mineral wealth of a region regarded as the last great frontier for oil and gas exploration. Estimates of resources vary with a 2001 study suggesting the Arctic held 25% of the globe’s undiscovered minerals. Research in 2006 anticipated just 10% but this year, the US Geological Survey claimed 13% of undiscovered oil and 30% of concealed gas could be found in the Arctic.
All five coastal Arctic nations – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US – have reaffirmed their claims to parts of the region because of its potential mineral wealth. While Canada regards the Northwest Passage as hers, other countries see the area as international waters.
“Industry and politicians are looking north,” said Dr Jeremy Wilkinson, a sea ice physicist from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. The chances of resources becoming available, and the accuracy of predictions of the impacts of climate change from several competing models, were unclear.
“A lot of the models are inconclusive,” Dr Wilkinson said. “There’s a bit too much democracy in IPCC reports. Efforts should be put into looking at what’s going wrong before looking at predictions.”
Tavis Potts: Why our approach is new
The group
Stanislav Shmelev, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford
Tom Thornton, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford
Michael Bravo, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge
Clive Schofield, University of Wollongong, ANCORS
Ian Townsend-Gault, University of British Columbia, Canada
Warwick Gullett, University of Wollongong
Mary Jones, University of Tromsø
Njord Wegge, University of Tromsø
Jeremy Wilkinson, Scottish Association for Marine Science
Ray Leakey, Scottish Association for Marine Science
David VanderZwaag, Dalhousie University
Deanna Kingston, Oregon State University
Martina Tyrrell, University of Reading
Pamela Strigo, Canadian High Commission
Branka Valcic, Scottish Association for Marine Science
Tavis Potts, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment
Bettina Wittneben, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment
Importing food could be green
Independent, 15 August 2009
While asking many of the right questions, the Government should not focus new food policies solely on production at home.
The quest to reduce the risk of disasters
The quest to reduce the risk of disasters and increase hospital safety is timely.
Telegraph, 13 August 2009
Higher food prices could cut emissions
The UK government today launched its first food security assessment because of concerns about the effects on food supplies in the face of climate change, pressures on land and our rising population.
The outcome of the consultation could mean the end of the cheap food era, with consumers paying more for better quality food produced using fewer resources and generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
The Smith School’s Dr Mick Blowfield believes paying more for our food could help cut emissions by leaving less money for flights and gas-guzzling cars.
Dr Blowfield, who has worked and studied in more than 20 countries, also predicts job losses in poorer nations if UK-produced out of season food replaces imports.
Dr Blowfield said: “The UK has invested heavily in crop production around the world, not least in developing African countries where jobs could go if we produce more food at home.
“Producing food and shipping it from Africa can be less energy intensive than getting out of season crops to grow in the UK or Holland.”
Cheap food also contributes to obesity and even binge drinking because low-cost foods are often high in calories and grain for alcohol is cheap, Dr Blowfield also warned.
“And if more land is used for farming there will be less for new houses and wind farms, and other renewables.
“The government is asking a lot of the right questions but is in danger of treating food in isolation from the other elements of a sustainable island economy.”
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