Nitrogen Pollution Increases The Population of Algae in Freshwater (image is credited to http://www.msrivercollab.org)
It has been arguably statement that Nitrogen could be affected the climate change as it is demanded importantly for our food preservation. However, the data could not be avoided that Nitrogen could cause more damage to the environment. Subsequently, we need to think deeper about how we use the fertilizers particularly those which related to nitrogen-integrated ecosystem.
Nitrogen (N2) is one of the inert gases which is needed for certain activities and those are including in farming sector. The agriculture aspect demands the gas for the growth of plants, such as vegetables. However, the more nitrogen we demand, the higher risk will be gotten. Nitrogen itself could be improving the growth of blue-green algae which is considered as toxic plant impacting the ecosystem. According to the recent events, the problems associated to nitrogen produce lots of greenhouse gasses resulting to ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and nitrous oxide, which contribute to acid rain or matter. Therefore, to counter this problem, scientists and farmers must reform the way of growing plants by using fertilizers.
Compared to the carbon dioxide pollution, chemical compounds based on nitrogen is far higher in impacting the climate change. As we mentioned previously, the leakage of nitrogen affects the ecosystem life in freshwater such as in river, basin and lake. In the United States (US) itself, the effects contribute up to 24 percent of contamination in Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin, while in the Europe itself it is estimated that more than 70 billion Euros of costs in preventing the pollution. How it happens?
The causes of compounds based on nitrogen
The beginning of the nitrogen pollution is started by the burning of fossil fuels in large-scale such as coal and oil. In petroleum industries, the nitrogen is used to prevent the process of ignition while at the same time it can reduce the corrosion in a vessel/tank. On the other hand, the discovery of Haber-Bosch process which allows the N2 to become inert contributes to the presence of ammonia in synthesizing valuable and cheaper fertilizers, which are needed to supply the global demands. As a result, either Nitric Oxide (NO) or Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and some acidic compounds are produced. The question is how are we going to reduce the contamination of nitrogen?
In addition to reduce the nitrogen pollution, we must avoid exaggeration use of nitrogen based compounds, such as in large scale use of nitrogen fertilizers. On the other hand, the declining utilization of fossil fuels in combustion process must be avoided particularly in providing the electricity.
In fact, climate change is happening currently during our daily activity. When you travel with aircraft going abroad or domestic, we actually experience the climate change. We see the planet getting warmer and warmer, and we realize the ice sheets in the northern pole is melting. We also agreed that our utilization of fossil fuels increasing the temperature of the planet. But, still most of us do nothing!
Climate change was firstly experienced in around 70s and 80s and it has been one of the biggest threat ever since. And it will be predicted that if the earth’s temperature constantly rises the climate change will be experienced significantly by the future young generations. This issue currently become global problem which most of people must put their concern on it. As we know that the climate change could alter our planet significantly throughout its effects including flooding, drought, increasing of sea level, and many more.
Who are behind the happening of climate change?
Many environmentalists and scientists have shown us about the increasing level of global temperature and they also provide us with the natural evidence throughout the weather and environmental damage. Both of them agreed that the increasing level of the planet is caused by the presence of greenhouse gasses preventing the heat energy from the Sun. But scientifically speaking, one of the greenhouse gasses, which is the carbon dioxide, is needed for the plants to do photosynthesis. It means, to prevent the warming, we just need to replant the trees. But, that is not the problem!
Methane which is classified as greenhouse gasses has been elevating in the last decades. Statistically speaking, the methane gas has increased significantly from around 1,000 ppb in 1950 to almost 2,000 ppb in 2015 (part per billion). Unlike carbon dioxide, methane gas is very abundant but it is quite difficult to capture and store because its gaseous state in normal conditions either for temperature and pressure. So, why methane?
As previously mentioned early, this relative abundance gas in Earth is natural and lots of microorganisms and organisms have been producing it. Livestock is one of the biggest organisms in the planet that produce the methane gas in high numbers. Due to our demand in eating meat as the source of protein, livestock animals’ numbers are increasing implying to the higher level of methane. So, basically, it is merely on our appetite to consume lots, lots of meat.
But, methane as natural gas is also abundant in the planet, and this gas is utilized for electricity. Many nations throughout their petroleum companies and industries have been exploiting this gas for certain uses. Economically speaking, this gas is gold for certain nations. As a result, exploration and mining are occurred around the world causing the methane gas which is trapped inside the surface leaks to the atmosphere. This adds and makes the quantities of the methane in the atmosphere elevating. And, oil and gas companies around the world realize this issue.
It is still debatable!
Whether the global corporation in exploring the earth or the high rates of meat consumption affects the planet by increasing the temperature. But, the seven billion people in the world is in dilemma because we do not know either to choose short-term or long-term solution. Apparently, in stopping the global corporation will solve the problem in short-term as people will not use the gas in significant numbers. However, this solution will not be accepted easily by societies particularly who live in developed countries because most of them lies on the electricity.
Unlike developed countries, people in developing or underdeveloped countries will not easily give up their life only for saving the planet. Psychologically speaking, they think firstly for emerging their family from poverty not some sort of action particularly stopping eating meat which in the future affects the health of their family. So, generally, to solve the climate crisis is far more complicated than we think.
To be concluded, instead of arguing which one is the reason of causing the climate change, it is better for us as human being to be actively reduce the activity which can affect the environment such as planting the trees. And at the same time, the government addresses the climate crisis by providing renewable energy such as solar and wind energy.
Building our own resources of energy is becoming quite interesting today. With the little concern about high-damaged power plants, such as what was happened in Chernobyl, green energy from green technology has invited many scientists and engineers to build. However, the problem lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of the energy resources, which one of them is the Solar Energy.
In November 2017, the France has published their project in harvesting energy from solar cell. Well, this thing is common for many people in the world today, so what is the difference between France on the others? It looks like, the France has built and opened the world’s first solar powered road! Located in the village of Tourovre-au-Perche in Normandy Region, called Wattway. Interestingly, according to the report of advfn website, this project costed over five million euros to build this road which many people consider as ineffective for only a single lane one-kilometer of road.
Although the road is in trial, the Wattway project is only one-kilometer-long covered by almost 3,000 photovoltaic panels. This implies to the high expectancy of the officials in generating electricity in high amount. To be informed well, this road will be used by the vehicles approximately 2,000 daily for two-year test period.
What makes this idea ineffective?
One of the biggest problem on harvesting energy from solar cell is the ability of the cell to convert the sunlight and the intensity of the light per day. So, it will be inefficient when the solar radiation that comes to the cell is small because of the amount of daylight per day in certain countries is less than 12 hours. On the other hand, the solar cells are installed in the road indicating the vehicles block the solar radiation from the atmosphere, giving lack of efficiency. With budget over five million Euros, this idea could be unprecedented given the weather condition.
However, the ministry of France which is responsible to this project believes this project in generating electricity for 280 megawatt hours (MWh) so that the 5,000 population in the village, Tourouvre-au-Perches, will be lighted. Nevertheless, the prediction is still unbelievable because the electricity probably will be able to light the streetlight.
Given the weather dependency, pointing the costs of production, the solar panels are installed in all houses in the village are more effective and efficient. The residence will be able to consume and organize the source of electricity properly.
1,000 kilometers on the next four years
Solar road concepts could be a good idea “if” the efficiency of the solar radiation might have been solved. However, the project leader sees this as one of big opportunity to do. As the rooftop solar cell panels depends on the angle or it is depended on the position of the roof. The solar road concept which has flat angle probably are more efficient than the rooftop. This trial and error will lead to the another project, installing 1,000 kilometers of solar-panelled roads. If this two-years of trial is succeeded, then it will trigger another countries in the world to build the same project.
When hearing the name of Elon Musk, most people, particularly the young technopreneurs or scientists will be amazed by his name. Truth to be told, today’s young generation in the world probably wants to be like Musk. But, what is exactly everything that relates to him?
If you are familiar to the name of Tesla Motor Company, then you must be already knowing who is Elon Musk. But, for you who are not familiar with him, then may be you currently are familiar with the company of SpaceX or SolarCity, and in the last two years he has been establishing the scientific based companies named the Boring Company and Neuralink.
Musk is considered as one of the top influencer in the world as his proposals in science applied has been opened the mind-set of world’s societies about the implementation of science and engineering in solving the social problems. For instance, the Boring Company which was founded nine months ago is a company which provides tunneling construction. Throughout this company, Musk thinks that today’s transportation is not efficient and effective because they generate greenhouse gas when having traffic congestion. Therefore, he proposed not only short-term solution but also long-term solution.
Until now, throughout his company, Elon Musk has been provided solution for global society in the field of transportation, energy and environment sustainability.
Bringing people to Mars
One of the most promising works that Musk has been working today is the SpaceX project which has cooperation with several public domain organizations such as NASA and ISS in experimenting the space travel from Earth to Mars. The Space X which stands for space eXploration is an aerospace manufacture and space transport. In 2001, Elon Musk proposed his idea about Mars Oasis which is to colonialize Mars by reconstructing the environment throughout growing plants.
To achieve its goal, the SpaceX has been experimenting several rocket launch since September 2008. But, the most incredible thing is the solution of controllable landing rocket. The success mission was Falcon 9 on April 2016 and until now they have been developing significance changing in term of space transportation.
So, what are others thing that Elon Musk has been constructing? They are: SolarCity an OpenAI.
The illustration of hydrogen produced from seawater made by artist
The possibility of harvesting clean energy from seawater – which is one of the most abundant material in the Earth – will become possible as researchers from University of Central Florida (UCF) have found method to produce this fuel. The fuel sounds promising because hydrogen is considered as clean energy resources. So, how it works?
Technically speaking, seawater could be cracked so the hydrogen and oxygen are separated. To do so, one of the possible method is by utilizing the electricity, however, this method requires high energy so it can be considered as inefficient and ineffective. Therefore, the scientists of University of Central Florida came out with an idea by implementing the photosynthesis process which utilizes the solar radiation as energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. It turns out, this idea becomes one of the promising method in harvesting clean energy in term of efficient and less expensive costs.
Currently, the demands of clean energy are growing astronomically as the fossil fuels probably will be decreasing in the next few decades. The main source of utilization of fossil fuels is the transportation. To transport people from one place to another place, we need vehicles which are powered by the fossil fuel, however, the side-effects create environmental impacts as the quantities carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide become higher and higher. Consequently, global warming which can cause higher temperature threatens our planet.
Hydrogen as the main source of fuel for machinery
It has been considered for so long that hydrogen could become one of the most promising strategy in preventing global warming. By using hydrogen, the result is not greenhouse gasses, on the contrary, it generates water when the hydrogen is burned with oxygen. On the other hand, the raw materials – which is the material that can be processed for the hydrogen – are abundant, such as seawater or groundwater. But, why today’s society still does not utilize the hydrogen power optimize?
The answer lies on the facilities and infrastructures that support the hydrogen powered machinery. For instance, today’s equipment utilizes fossil fuels as the main source of energy while hydrogen powered engine is not yet to be found in common. The only transportation that uses hydrogen as its main power is rocket so hydrogen is considered as ineffective and inefficient.
Separating hydrogen and oxygen by solar radiation
Nature has taught us how to harvest energy. In photosynthesis mechanism, the solar radiation is utilized to perform photocatalytic reaction which can separate the hydrogen from the water bonding. The scientists considered that the solar energy could be utilized only extracting the hydrogen from seawater for purifying. However, as it is reported in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, the lead scientist, Yang and his research team were able to develop new catalyst for this reaction. As a result, the finding is not only about the energy harvesting but also to maintain harvesting in harsh condition.
Catalysts is used to accelerate the reaction without involving with the reaction itself. By performing typical catalysts such as titanium oxide which is etched by tiny nanocavities coating with molybdenum disulfide, the research team is able to boost certain spectrum of light which has typical energy so they could harvest the energy. Yang’s team also performed controlling of sulfur vacancy within size of nanoflakes in addition to harvest energy in certain wavelength in particular from ultraviolet-visible to near-infrared indicating the efficiency of the utilization of photocatalysts.
To be concluded, this method could become the most promising method as the material used for harvesting energy is abundant. Furthermore, the utilization of solar radiation as the main energy to do separating the bonding is considered as effective and efficient. More importantly, in processing the hydrogen, the catalyst is relatively easy and inexpensive implying that the hydrogen fuels will be possible in the future to harvest.
References:
[1] Image is downloaded from www.phys.org
Carbon dioxide resulted from machinery creates global warming in the Earth
When global warming happens to our planet, many people including scientists have been trying to reduce any activities that related to the production of carbon dioxide. As we know, the Earth is becoming warmer because the Solar radiation cannot be bounced back by carbon dioxide. As a result, the energy that is emitted from the solar radiation is kept so it increases the temperature.
One of the best solution is by capturing the carbon dioxide which is considered as the main reason in keeping the temperature inside the Earth. The process of capturing carbon dioxide is by increasing the numbers of living organisms who are able to perform photosynthesis. Mostly, this photoautotrophic living organisms are the plants and green algae. They could capture and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is very dangerous for the planet. However, the main reason of increasing numbers of carbon dioxide is not merely biological waste of metabolism, but also perfect combustion occurred on the machinery.
Since the revolution industry in the United Kingdom, the development of machinery has been improving day after day. Currently, the demands of machinery has been influencing the needs of human everyday. For instance, aspect of transportation and electricity are the examples of this machinery aspect. The utilization of vehicles either in transporting goods or people require tonnes of fossil fuels and the result created by the use of vehicles is the increasing numbers of carbon dioxide. On the other hand, the demands for electricity is also increasing at the same time for the development of technology in the field of electronic devices.
Although we can capture the carbon dioxide caused by the transportation sector, our next issue is located on the sector of electricity. Currently, many countries including several developed countries depend on the power plant powered by fossil fuels. The solar-powered electric plants have not been yet optimized, while the hydro and solar -powered power plants require several requirements. Therefore, our solution is one which is creating sustainable development.
The decision of choosing fuels from carbon dioxide because its properties. Fuel containing multiple carbon atom are effective because its phase is liquid which have volatility and flammability. The advantages from these two properties are the liquid is able to perform perfect combustion in form of gas. Therefore, efficiency in producing heat energy which can be used to run the piston in the machinery.
The study also can answer the global climate change because of the needs of carbon dioxide as the base of the fuel. So, while decreasing the amount of greenhouse gas, the fuel is created. This could reduce the global warming from carbon dioxide.
Lithium concentration was found in floor of crater lake of Oregon
Supervolcanoes are similar to common volcano, however, they are far more superior in the term of volcano-activity. For example, three of the most superior supervolcanoes in the world are located in Indonesia and they are Toba, Tambora and Krakatau. These supervolcanos had erupted long time ago and they have been providing rich-nutrient for the nearby ground. But, what makes these supervolcanoes becoming interesting?
Recently, researchers from Stanford University were able to locate deposits of lithium in supervolcanoes. They published their study on nature suggesting that the Lithium actually is deposited in caldera basins in form of rhyolite magmas. This finding suggested us about the possibility of vast natural resources in caldera created by the eruption of supervolcanoes. But how we can mine this metal?
Caldera is produced by volcanic activities such massive eruptions which had happened years ago. The eruptions pushed the magmas beneath the volcanoes so they will be pushed off the volcanoes. But, for supervolcanoes, as we mentioned previously, their eruptions are far more superior than common volcanoes. To be precise, it is 10,000 more than Hawaiian volcanoes. This means that mineral resources beneath the supervolcanoes must have been pushed off the underground. As a result, the activities formed soil sedimentation for layers if the eruption happened for several times.
So, what can be mined from the sedimentation?
Mostly, we could say that the soil of caldera is composed by many rich-nutrients in particular for biological activities such as carbon-rich soil. However, the finding found in Crater Lake in Oregon was soil-deposited Lithium(http://news.stanford.edu/2017/08/16/supervolcanoes-key-americas-electric-future/). Interestingly, the common chemical compounds providing by the volcanoes are mostly Sulphur. For instance, in Indonesia, Kawah Ijen crater lake has been mined by local citizens for the Sulphur. However, the Sulphur is in form of banded sediments and as subaqueous molten body on the floor of the crater [1].
On the other hand, the Stanford researchers stated that the depositions of Lithium are represented in form of pegmatites, brines, and clays suggesting the location is in the floor of the crater [2]. The process of sedimentation in volcanoes were occurred during the process of crystallization of water-rich and most of them are happened during the formation of rhyolitic lava or magma. Based on their findings, the indicators of determining the concentration of the Lithium itself lies on the composition of the rhylolitic magma which is the Zircon concentration. The more Zircon you have, the least Lithium you get, and vice versa.
Therefore, the possibility of Lithium sedimentation is presence in the floor of crater of volcanoes particularly in caldera of supervolcanoes. So, it is possible that Indonesia may have Lithium resources? The possibility is yes. This possibility was based on the research conducted by Wataru Tanikawa in the mud of Lapindo Brantas.
To be concluded, the sedimentation of crater has high possibility of Lithium deposits specifically the caldera created by supervolcanoes. This conclusion was based on the research conducted in the Oregon Lake. But, more importantly, why Lithium? Find more information on the next article.
Reference
[1] P. Delmelle, A. Bernard, M. Kusakabe, T. P. Fischer and B. Takano, "Geochemistry of the magmatic-hydrothermal system of Kawah Ijen volcano, East Java, Indonesia," Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, no. 97, pp. 31-53, 2000.
[2] T. R. Benson, M. A. Coble, J. J. Rytuba and G. A. Mahood, "Lithium enrichment in intracontinental rhyolite magmas leads to Li deposits in caldera basins," Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 270, pp. 1-9, 2017.
Despite of its controversial plan, solution based on the geoengineering aspects may become one of the best solution to save the Earth from environmental damages. There are some promising methods that could be conducted by re-engineering the biological, physical and chemical systems in the earth. This term was coined to save the planet from human’s activities not only to make it sounds cool.
One of the geoengineering method in solving the environmental damage was by using the biological elements. In July 2012, scientists which were funded by the Russ George conducted experiments involving the plankton. Their plan was to trigger the plankton for reproducing themselves by giving them vast source of food which were needed by them. The Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation threw hundreds of thousands pounds of iron sulphate which were consumed by the plankton so they would do reproduction. But, why it had to be plankton?
The aim was to harvest plankton which had ability to absorb airborne carbon dioxide. This type of plankton consumes carbon dioxide as raw energy to perform the photosynthesis. When the carbon dioxide is being utilized, the carbon dioxide is cracked so it produces the oxygen as by-product. At the end, the carbon will be staying at the body of phytoplankton and when this microalgae dead, it will be sinking to the oceans’ floors. Thus, the decomposition process is begun while the leftover of decomposed material will be consumed by the marine life including the phytoplankton. This cyclic process is one of the promising solution coined by the geoengineering plant.
On the other hand, the ocean acidification is currently bleaching the coral reef in certain places. This environmental damage is occurred because of the solved carbon dioxide in the ocean. In the nature, the chemical reaction conducts continuously. Subsequently, the carbonic acid is formed which is actually a weak acid. However, by the increasing of carbon dioxide resulted from the activities of human generates more acidic ocean each year. The more acidic the ocean the more corrosive the ocean, and as the result everything you put in it will be dissolved.
Surprisingly, the presence of phytoplankton mentioned earlier can become one of the effective solution because before the carbon dioxide reacts to the water, these microalgae already captured it. To conclude, geoengineering is one of the promising method in saving the Earth from greenhouse gasses. Furthermore, it can secure the marine’s ecosystem.
Farmers in Indonesia still depend on the solar activity for processing the salt
The decision of government opening the importing process of Sodium Chloride or Salt from Australia generated nonsensical explanation. It was only due to the weather anomalies, such as raining, the production and processing of salt could have not been achieved, so the ministry of trade decided to import the Salt from the others countries. The decision is not solving the issue because the salt makers are not well supported either in facilities and infrastructures and also they are not trained and educated well about the production and processing. How can the government decided to import salt?
Salt or in chemical term called as sodium chloride is one of the common product for consumption. In cooking, salt is responsible in generating bitterness which makes the cooking delicious. Despite of seasoning, salt is also utilized to keep the food fresh in traditional method of food preservation. Hence, salt is one of the essential product for human.
Consumption of salt is also important for metabolism, but consuming it excessively can cause many diseases including hypertension which lead to heart attack. Surprisingly, lack of salt could disturb the metabolism system as it supports the electrolyte and osmosis mechanisms.
Salt is produced and processed by crystallizing the seawater throughout radiating from sunlight traditionally and this method is called solar production and processing method. However, the production of salt in Indonesia met challenges because of the weather anomalies. Although weather particularly the sunlight is crucial and essential in producing and processing the salt, the production does not merely depend on the presence of sunlight. Optimization in salt manufacturing could be higher by applying technology in the method.
However, the government of Indonesia through the ministry of trade, fishery and marine as the authorized ministries do not have awareness in the technology of processing of salt yet. “The reason that the production of salt only reached about 0.23 of total target in Cirebon was caused by rain so the farmers could have not produced it”, stated by the official of local government of fishery and marine [1]. Technically speaking, this is the factual evidence that the related ministries put small awareness about the production. If weather is the problem, the solution is by constructing the production plant that can absorb sunlight without getting wet. Hence, the green house is one of the solutions.
In the meantime, in solving thus, the government issued the regulation to import the salt from another country which was considered as nonsensical solution. Importing is not a solution because we have the resources, but production plant is not constructed and operated effectively and efficiently. (note that Indonesia has one of the longest shoreline in the world).
Based on the data issued by the ministry of fishery and marine showed that the production of salt conducted by local communities had increased from 2011 to 2015 for 32 per cent averagely for a year. [2]. The referenced data suggested that in 2013 the production was the lowest as the hot season during that year was only two months.
From 2011 to 2015, the productions of salt accounted by the local communities were more than half, while the national and private enterprises produced less than a third from the national total. Surprisingly, the countries that imported salt to Indonesia were less-shoreline countries than Indonesia (Australia, India, China, New Zealand, and Thailand).
To conclude, the salt production in Indonesia was limited because of the lack of understanding in optimizing the quantities. Weather is not the main reason regarding of the production. Constructing the facilities and infrastructures, such as, green house is efficient and effective for traditional method. Whilst, the technology must be applied by implementing the crystallization method.
References
[1] B. Hermawan, "Cuaca Buruk Membuat Produksi Garam Rakyat Cirebon Turun," Antara, 26 November 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/daerah/16/11/26/oh8baf354-cuaca-buruk-membuat-produksi-garam-rakyat-cirebon-turun. [Accessed 07 August 2017].
[2] K. I. "Produksi Garam Indonesia," 2015. [Online]. Available: http://statistik.kkp.go.id/sidatik-dev/Berita/Analisis%20Produksi%20Garam%20Indonesia.pdf. [Accessed 07 August 2017].
[3] Image is credited form www.thejakartapost.com
Transforming Deli River into tourism attraction site and hydro power plant
(image is downloaded from https://upload.wikimedia.org)
Thousands of years ago, civilization begun nearby rivers. In order from the oldest, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Indus, and China civilizations were the four top civilizations that influence the world so society established the fundament principles in life. Interestingly, those civilizations were firstly established nearby the rivers not merely for foods. So, why do not we manage it again like the old’s time did?
Respectively, Tigris and Euphrates; Nile; Indus and Yangtze/ Yellow rivers are the places for those societies for establishing their own civilizations and cultures. The decisions of rivers were firstly occurred as the source of water and it also provides food availability. Interestingly, with the growing of traditions and culture which produced knowledge and educations, the rivers also become part of social facilities and infrastructures including agricultural, transportation, storage, and nowadays tourism and energy.
Started back around 3000 to 3500 thousands BC, the Mesopotamian and Egyptian utilized the water availability not only for water preservation but also to do farming and even more they were able to determine the cropping season by observing the quantity of water on the rivers. On the other hand, Indus and China use it as new source of energy by converting the rivers’ flow into kinetic energy water wheel while the next civilizations used it to mill seeds in producing flour and others utilizations [1]. Interestingly, today’s civilizations utilized it for creating electricity by constructing dams.
Rivers were considered as source of foods and other utilizations. The same goes on today, water management for drinking, household utilization, agricultural and farming, but the interesting thing is the use for producing electricity.
In Indonesia, there are many provinces which have high current of rivers. Technically speaking, some of the rivers also formed in wide shape with high quantity of debits. However, as we know constructing rivers containing wider width and high current could become the main challenges whereas the small river produces small obstacles. Therefore, utilization and functionalization the small rivers’ flows in order to produce electricity are considered as better solution to that. Micro-hydro plant is the solution because it is environmentally friendly and the accessibility to build and operate is easy.
Medan is a capital city of North Sumatera Province and it has one river that flows centrally in the city. The Deli river starts in the eastern sites of the province located in Sibolangit in Deli regency and it flows to Medan towards to Labuhan Deli, Percut Sei Tuan, Medan Labuhan [2]. Interestingly, it is predicted it can generate 12.5 Mega Watt of electricity if the river banks is utilized completely [3]. This high potential of new resources of electricity is big which can answer the electric crisis in Medan particularly North Sumatera.
However, as the construction takes big expenses, the solution is the Micro-hydro power plant. This power plant is harvested from low current of river’s water so it is considered as renewable power plant which is friendly to the environment. Hence, the other good advantages are the ease of operation and low-cost of construction [4]. Fortunately, the interesting points about the re-transforming of Deli River also comes on the ecotourism aspect. Constructing the micro-power plant means conserving the river banks which can prevent the biodiversity in stable condition.
On the other hand, for example the river banks on Jalan Deli located in sub-district Glugur, can become one of the attractive place either in the morning or afternoon. There are three elements that must be fulfilled to improve a place into attractive area so the tourists interested to visit. They are the elements of transportation, related facilities and infrastructures such as water station, dock, and the attractiveness and tourist activities such boat. However, the river that can be tourist destination must aware about these six things[5], they are
The condition of riverside must be well maintained and utilized in proper ways
The potential for water attractions such as the flow, the riverside
The landslides of the river embankment must be reconstructed and it has low risk of avalanche
Additional facilities to support the good landscape such lights and benches or safety indicators
Community support from the people living nearby
Facilities related to the tourism services such as bridges, cafes or restaurants
To conclude, there are potential of Deli river to be utilized and functionalized for micro-hydro power plant and ecotourism. That potential area is in the riverside on Jalan Deli. The micro-hydro power plant is utilized to prevent high risk of disasters which can be occurred as the related area also is used for ecotourism to improve the communal finance.
References
[1] W. "Water wheel," Wikipedia, 23 July 2017. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_wheel. [Accessed 01 August 2017].
[2] E. Ridiza, "Pelestarian Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS) Deli," wordpress.com, 12 June 2015. [Online]. Available: https://elsaridiza.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/pelestarian-daerah-aliran-sungai-das-deli/. [Accessed 02 August 2017].
[3] K. P. U. "Pola pengelolaan sumber daya air wilayah sungai belawan ular padang," Kementrian Pekerjaan Umum, Medan, 2012.
[4] Y. R. Pasalli and A. B. Rehiara, "Design Planning of Micro-hydro power plant in Hink River," Procedia Environmental Sciences, no. 20, pp. 55-63, 2014.
[5] H. T. Fachruddin and M. D. Lubis, "Planning for riverside area as water tourism destination to improve quality of life local residents, case study: Batuan-Sikambing River, Medan, Indonesia," Procedia Social and Behavioral sciences, no. 234, pp. 434-441, 2016.
[6] Video is accessed 02 August 2017 from Youtube.com
The Paenibacillus sp bacteria is one of pathogenic bacteria that caused American foulbrood in honeybees. Many studies reported the genus of the bacteria has potential to cause chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disease, premature birth, Whipple’s disease, hydrocephalus, skin cancer, chronic interstitial nephropathy, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. However, this genus of bacteria actually can be used to another profitable work which is producing xylanase.
Wood comprises lignocellulose which can be converted into Xylanase
(image is downloaded from www.cleantechloops.com)
Paenibacillus sp is classified as anaerobic bacteria which can reproduce through endospore. This bacterium is also classified in genus Bacillus until 1993 and it has own genus named Paenibacillus. Many of scientists have reported that this genus of bacteria causes the plant and animal diseases such as American foulbrood in honeybees or in human causing chronic diseases (Grady, MacDonald, Liu, Richman, & Yuan, 2016). Paenibacillus sp is a bacteria were not able to cause diseases for human however until recently this genus has an ability to do that.
Although this genus of bacteria is possible to cause human disease, apparently the pathogenic properties can be transformed into something beneficial. Paenibacillus sp. XJ18 was utilized to produce xylanase compound by growing it into lignocellulose media (Kurrata'ayun, Yopi, & Meryandini, 2015). This experiment could be conducted as the Paenibacillus sp.XJ18 consume lignocellulose while growing and it produced the xylene.
The process of transforming Paenibacillus sp in producing Xylanase
The media to growth the Paenibacillus using by the authors of the referenced paper was lignocellulose. This chemical compound is a waste in nature that is produced by the agroforestry activity. It is bounded with another lignohemicellulose compounds which are cellulose and hemi-cellulose. Therefore, chemically speaking, the structure of lignocellulose consists sugar that is formed in non-degradable form and almost half of it is Xylan.
On the other hand, Xylan is a complex chemical compound which is structuraly derived-carbon atoms within it. Xylanase can be produced throughout the complex breakdown of the hemicellulose itself (Wikipedia.org, 2017). In wood-plant trees, lingo-hemi-cellulose compounds are in vast quantity. But, Xylanase is attractive because of it is categorized as low calories sugar from the breakdown chains, and also it can be used as bleaching in pulp paper whitening.
The scientists used the Paenibacillus sp. XJ18 because of its xylanatic index value. The incubation and isolation process utilized the corncob from national park in Jambi because the corncob has the highest xylan content (Yang, et al., 2009). The bacteria consume the corncob anaerobically and the metabolism process produces fermented material. To obtain the Xylan from fermented material, the scientists extracted by alkali method obtaining around 10.82 percent of Xylan from 2,500 g of corncob powder.
Producing Xylan from biotechnology
It is similar in producing the bio-material particularly for bioenergy and biogas, the fermentation that requires bacteria becomes promising method. The advantages of this method is there is no required energy such as heat or electricity. We only need the media which can be consumed by the bacteria to growth and creating colonies. However, this production method can be considered as biohazard since bacteria can become threat for human health.
References
[1] Grady, E. N., MacDonald, J., Liu, L., Richman, A., & Yuan, Z.-C. (2016). Current knowledge and perspectives of Paenibacillus: A Review. Microbial Cell Factories, 203.
[2] Kurrata'ayun, Yopi, & Meryandini, A. (2015). Characterization of Xylanase activity produced by Paenibacillus sp. XJ18 from TNBD Jambi, Indonesia. Hayati Journal of Biosciences, 20-26.
[3] Wikipedia.org. (2017, July 28). Xylanase. Retrieved from Wikipedia.org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylanase
[4] Yang, W., AJapur, V., Krishnamurthy, K., Feng, H., Yang, R., & Rababah, T. (2009). Expedited extraction of xylan from corncob by power ultrasound. International Journal of Agricultural Biology Engineering, 76-83.
Clean energy has been becoming intriguing factors in the last two-three decades. One of the factors is the greenhouse effect which can create the global warming. Others suggest that because we are running out of fossil fuels. The demands of another energy resources are growing astronomically. To answer it, scientists in several world has come with bioenergy and one of it is from liquid-waste tofu.
The pulp and liquid-waste of tofu is generated from tofu manufacturing (image is credited by https://media.treehugger.com)
Tofu is one of the popular food among Indonesian. It has been considering by many ethnicities in Indonesia used tofu for their daily consumption. There are so many traditional culinary that use tofu as their main ingredient such as Kupat Tahu, Karedok, Gado Gado and many snacks which use that also.
Tofu is manufactured from soybean and it is coagulated for nights. The production has been increasing from micro-production to macro-production and as the result generates two wastes which are liquid and pulp. On the other hand, because the liquid-waste generating from manufacturing is high, the demands of water in making tofu is high too. This gives big impact to the environment so in addition to prevent the damage, scientists take advantage from the chemical components of the waste by turning it into bioenergy throughout microbial fuel cell reactors that can generate electricity.
Microbial fuel cell system in producing electricity from tofu
In producing the electricity, the normal reactor must be filled by the required chemical substance which are flammable and volatile to create electricity from the machinery. But, in microbial fuel cell (MFC) system, the difference is only located on the source of the electron. In normal machine, the source of the electron is generated by the converting process of heat energy to move the electric motor. In the contrary, the source of electron in microbial fuel cell is processed from the oxidation of organic compounds created by the microorganisms (Watanabe, 2008). So, when the electron arrives on the anode of the MFC, it will be delivered directly to cathode as the difference of potential between two metals and this lead to oxidation process in forming water (Mathuriya & Sharma, 2010).
In short, we need to things which are the agent oxidation and the bridge to connect the electron. As the agent, we used biological living things or microorganisms such as Geobacter sulfurreducens (Trinh, Park, & Kim, 2009) and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (Inayati, Aminin, & Suyati, 2015). As we know that one of the bridge in connecting the electron is the substrate which is similar like we do in electrochemical process. Therefore, electrolyte solution is required and the required solution is processed by the microorganism by creating the acid solution. Consequently, the electrolyte solutions have to be solutions that can be medium for growing the microorganisms.
In processing tofu, the demand of water is high so the results of the waste are pulp and liquid. These two wastes are potentially to be utilized because of containing compounds of glucose within it. Therefore, the amount of glucose is used by the bacteria as the main source of food and the results is the converting process into acid or electrolyte solutions.
The electron can be moving because of the salt bridge (image is credited by https://chemistry.stackexchange.com)
In addition to make it connected, the use of salt bridge in important. But chemically speaking, the salt bridge here is used so the electron could be in balancing system as the electrons is always moving to find the lowest potential. This moving which flows from one cell to another cell creates electricity or bioelectricity.
Tofu liquid-waste as the bioelectricity source
The liquid-waste of manufacturing tofu creates the source of glucose for the microorganisms into acid solutions. This bio-chemical process is occurred in process of oxidation of the glucose creating the free electrons. By transferring the electrons, it can produce electricity. However, the bioelectricity that is produced from this anaerob reactor generates little voltage around 30 to 60 mV (Ismawati, Aminin, & Suyati, 2015).
References
[1] Inayati, N. S., Aminin, A. L., & Suyati, L. (2015). The bioelectricity of tofu whey in microbial fuel cell system with Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Jurnal Sains dan Matematika, 32-38.
[2] Ismawati, N., Aminin, A. L., & Suyati, L. (2015). Whey Tahu sebagai penghasil bioelektrisitas pada sistem microbial fuel cell dengan Lactobacillus Plantarum. Jurnal Sains dan Matematika, 43-49.
[3] Mathuriya, A. S., & Sharma, V. N. (2010). Bioelectricity production from various wastewaters through microbial fuel cell technology. Journal of Biochemical Technology, 133-137.
[4] Trinh, N., Park, J., & Kim, B. (2009). Increased generation of electricity in a microbial fuel cell using Geobacter sulfurreducens. Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, 748-753.
Watanabe, K. (2008). Recent developments in microbial fuel cell technologies for sustainable bioenergy. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 528-536.
Indonesia once experienced food sovereignty during the President Soeharto specifically in field of rice. During his era, cropping rice was one of the main agenda to make Indonesia better than before. It was proved by the exporting the rice to several south-east countries. However, in this millennium era, Indonesian is one of the biggest importer of rice even though its land is wide and vast. So, what is the main problem here?
Harvesting day could give fungus to grow as the straw is leftover
(image is credited by http://bbpadi.litbang.pertanian.go.id)
President Soeharto governed the Republic of Indonesia from 1965 to 1998. His government was the longest one about 32 years so it generates many social-political-economic issues. However, his government also produced amazing results and one of them was the food sovereignty in rice. His government created the "Swasembada Pangan" so the reserve of rice for national consumption was stable for five to ten years. So, people in Indonesia were securely safe from the starvation.
The food sovereignty currently is being planned again by today’s government. Throughout the program of Nawa Cita, the government of Indonesia intends to improve the production of rice from many provinces. Unfortunately, this requires lots of budgets including in constructing the facilities and infrastructures. Despite of those aspects, the government also is warned by the natural threats such as climate change, natural disasters and biological attacks from pests in the quantity of harvesting rice.
What challenges due to achieve food sovereignty in Indonesia
As we mentioned before on the previous articles, one of the problems in managing and organizing the natural resources in Indonesia is unprofessionalism (Ullah, Febriamansyah, & Yonariza, 2017). For example, the demands of maintaining land for cropping rice is treated unexpectedly. The owner of the land will abandon the land after harvesting period and maintain it before the cropping season started. This reckless and unprofessional act will make the land quality for cropping rice low which can disturb the production of the rice itself.
This unprofessional act was caused by the lack of knowledge among the farmers or growers. The solution is simple, the government must conduct training for the growers so that they can maintain and treat their land. Scientifically speaking, the maintenance the land will prevent the minerals within it kept which can be beneficial for the crops planted on it.
One of the next challenges along with the educational aspects of the growers is the biological attacks from pests. However, environmentally speaking, the pests attack the farm based on the seasons except the fungus. One of the most pathogenic fungus that can account a third loss in rice production is Magnaporthe oryzae during the harvesting season (Nalley, Tsiboe, Durand-Morat, Shew, & Thoma, 2016). This pathogen fungus colonized the farms when the farmers left uncontrollably the straw rice in farm itself based on the paper.
Those two issues address the government of Indonesia to be concerned about the lack of knowledge among the farmers.
Solution in increasing the opportunity of food sovereignty in rice production
Therefore, based on the analysis of issues during the production of the rice that unprofessionalism in managing the farms is the most important reason. The government should actively participate throughout the local unit in addressing this issue. To improve the production, engineers, biologists, or even scientists which are employed by the government must go to the farms and control those. On the other hand, the universities which have faculty of agricultural technology must monitor the scientific issue during the process of controlling.
Due to the lack of knowledge, socialization, training and workshops must be conducted so the farmers or growers can protect the farms from unexpected issues such as the presence of fungus. These two solutions are one of the effective and efficient solution in solving these two issues.
References
[1] Nalley, L., Tsiboe, F., Durand-Morat, A., Shew, A., & Thoma, G. (2016). Economic and environmental impact of rice blast phatogen (Magnaporthe oryzae) alleviation in the United States. PLoS ONE 11 (12), e0167295.
[2] Ullah, R., Febriamansyah, R., & Yonariza. (2017). Challenges of Managing Natural Resources in West Sumatera Indonesia. Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Asia, 3-10.
Breakthrough in photovoltaic process could lead us into new technology. The new solar cell technology called “Solar Paint” Material, can produce electricity. The team researcher from RMIT University Australia have engineered the paint that can absorb water in form of vapor so it can split the hydrogen and oxygen within it to produce of the cleanest sources of energy.
Molybdenum-sulphide currently is considered as one of the best alternative compounds to do electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. As the conversion of solar energy into fuel such as hydrogen is directly needed because of its effectiveness, the using of molybdenum-sulphide is growing. The reasons behind this utilization are the structure during the oxidation and reduction process. On the other hand, the use of molybdenum-sulphide is not as poisonous as another metal sulphide.
The harvesting energy from “solar” paint
In performing the energy harvesting, the new “solar” paint conducts the photocatalytic and electrocatalytic system. As the molybdenum-sulphide plays crucial role for semiconductor materials, the research team utilized as semiconductor while at the same time acts as catalysis. The reduction and oxidation reactions can be performed by the presence of sunlight. When the sunlight rays the paint, the molybdenum-sulphide absorbs the solar energy – which performs the photocatalytic process --, and it moves towards the electrolytic process. Moreover, these two processes are called as artificial photosynthesis.
Artificial photosynthesis as mentioned above performs two stage of processes. Firstly, by connecting the photovoltaic devices or compounds to water so the catalyst within it will be reacted. This energy converting generates hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) (Montoya, et al., 2016). The next stage after HER is occurred, the electrochemical process in separating the water molecules. But, the RMIT’s research team combined the molybdenum-sulphide which acted as photovoltaic devices with paint. With the help of Titanium Oxide and water which are the main compounds of wall paint, they were able to make the paint acting as “solar” harvesting energy materials.
Why choosing paint as medium for solar materials
Based on writer’s opinion, the choosing of paint as the medium is based on two things which are the surface of the paint and the effectiveness. Currently, the solar materials are installed in wide range of area and mostly installed above the house or roof. The maximum degree for the roof in forms of triangle is 35 to 40 degree, with the efficiency of sunlight hitting the solar materials is low during the sunrises until sunsets. Therefore, based on those two aspects, paint is very efficient and effective.
However, as the demands of clean energy resources is to produce the fuel, then the researchers combined it with the electrochemical process. The water consisted inside the paint will be splitting with the help of sunlight in generating the HER process.
Conclusion
The new technology of solar paint could become the best way to harvest clean energy. The hydrogen fuels which are obtained will be in form of gases.
References
Glanz, D. (2017, June 14). Solar paint offers endless energy from water vapour. Retrieved from RMIT University: https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2017/jun/solar-paint-offers-endless-energy-from-water-vapour
Montoya, J. H., Seitz, L. C., Chakthranont, P., Vojvodic, A., Jaramillo, T. F., & Norskov, J. K. (2016). Materials for solar fuels and chemicals. Nature Materials, 70-81.
The quantity of natural resources in Indonesia is abundant. With these resources, Indonesia could have received many profitable aspects such as social development, education, health and social security. However, the results are far beyond Indonesians expected. Throughout hundreds of national company, we are not able to improve social welfare yet.
Mining always becomes conflict in Indonesia (image is credited http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu)
The government of Indonesia currently operates hundreds of national companies. They are called as Badan Usaha Milik Negara, or literally translating, as National Enterprises. These companies work in several fields such as transportation, oil and gas, electricity, mining, telecommunication, industries, agricultural and farming, and forestry including tourism. Based on the website, there are 119 of national companies (Kementrian BUMN, 2017).
However, those 119 of national companies are owned by central government. The local government also has prerogative right to establish local companies in addition to improve local social welfare. For instance, Bank Sumut, Bank BJB, Bank DKI, Bank Aceh are the examples of local companies established by the government of provinces in Indonesia. But, again not all local and central –government companies are able to improve the quality of life in Indonesia.
What challenges occurred in managing the natural resources in Indonesia
According to writer’s opinion, one of the main challenges happened to this issue is unprofessionalism occurred during the managerial of natural resources. The organization of BUMNs were established to manage the resources in Indonesia. For example, the PT ANTAM (Aneka Tambang) which has been operating in managing several mining sites, owned by the government, was established to manage the minerals such as gold. Nonetheless, the profits earned by the company are utilized for expenditure of the government.
According to paper authorized by (Ullah, Febriamansyah, & Yonariza, 2017), one of the most problem in Sumatera Island, which is an island consisting seven provinces in Indonesia, is the forest management. There are four natural issues in Sumatera island itself, they are:
Deforestation in Sumatera. Despite of in Sumatera, major deforestation happened in Kalimantan island, which was caused by expansion of crude palm oil plantations and mining
Over-depending of Land resources. Many of Indonesian surviving for the life being depends on the natural resources such as food, utilization of land for farming and agriculture
Water availability. The contamination of water whether from fresh water or the river was resulted by the uncontrollable activities of the society
Unaware reaction of biodiversity and protected areas. For local people, biodiversity which is comprised in national protected forest is common natural resources. As long as they could get the profitable from the forest without concerning of biodiversity, they will do everything to get wealth from it
Those four aspects indicate two important things about the society. Firstly, the society does not even consider the environmental impact because they need nature for their life. And the second aspect is about the educational and preventive actions provided by the government.
Based on study conducted by (Harahap, Silveira, & Khatiwada, 2017), found that the government’s objectives for several sectoral demands including biofuel, agricultural, climate and forest are the reasons to manage the natural resources.
Solution in managing and organizing natural resources in Indonesia
Indonesia’s national constitution of 1945 section XIV about National Economy and Social Welfare article 33 point two and three clearly stated that “production sectors that are vital to the state and that affect the livelihood of a considerable part of the population are to be controlled by the state” and it followed by “the land and the waters as well as natural riches therein are to be controlled by the state to be exploited to the greatest benefit of the people”. This constitution protects the natural resources mentioned above are to be managed and organized by the state.
To prevent dependency of society to the natural resources, the government must actively participate by developing effective methods to perform sustainable environment. By creating the community-based natural resource management could be effective. For example, the tradition of lubuk larangan which is conducted by local people in Tapanuli Selatan invites them to prevent uncontrollable fishing. This tradition somehow produces greater impact in fishing and water sustainability in the society. However, the demands of fish will be increasing in certain times but it can be solved by the aids provided by the government throughout seed of fish.
The development of facilities and infrastructures related to the challenges can be an effective solution. Local people in Indonesia use firewood to do cooking and utilize water from the river for bathing and washing. The government must provide energy and water for this issue so the natural resources can be prevented from contamination.
References
[1] Harahap, F., Silveira, S., & Khatiwada, D. (2017). Land allocation to meet sectoral goals in Indonesia - An analysis of policy coherence. Land Use Policy, 451-465.
[2] Kementrian BUMN. (2017, July 4). http://bumn.go.id/halaman/situs/. Retrieved July 4, 2017
[3] Ullah, R., Febriamansyah, R., & Yonariza. (2017). Challenges of Managing Natural Resources in West Sumatera Indonesia. Redefining Diversity and Dynamics of Natural Resources Management in Asia, 3-10.
Farmers in Indonesia used to be thinking about cropping plants based on two seasons, they were hot and rainy seasons. This calendar system was based on the natural process of raining and hot weather. But, today’s farmers would not crop their plant based on the weather as the climate change presents. The food productions particularly from carbohydrate-producing plants, fruits and vegetables are affected by the changing of climate change. Is this the only impact resulting from the greenhouse effect?
Global warming affects the humanity in all sectors
Talking about climate change, our topics comprise increasing of Earth’s temperature, changing of climate such as rainfall and humidity. Temperature, rainfall, and humidity are the main components in life. Subsequently, these three aspects influence the human, flora and fauna. In term of productivity, the climate change alters the health condition of agricultural and farming. The next disadvantages are increasing level of carbon dioxide and breaking the ozone layers in the atmosphere. Some overall estimates the potential impacts and the groundbreaking result is the Earth will be non-habitable planets in the future.
However, the criteria of non-habitable planets are not merely based on the temperature, CO2, rainfall or humidity or any others, but the domino effects which are the source of nutritional food. The climate change could affect the food security into low-level of nutrition, suggested by Myers et al., it is because the quantity of agricultural production depends on the availability of biophysical resources which are
Soil quality with micro and micro ecosystem
Water availability
Quality of sunlight
Carbon dioxide
Suitable condition and temperature
The presence of pollinator
Climate change affects the production of food
The global temperature has been elevating in the last ten to fifteen years. It has been estimated the elevation of temperature around 1 centigrade for every 10-15 years. By calculating it linearly, we can predict that in the next century the temperature will be 7-10 centigrade hotter than today. This calculation is not only based on the mere multiplying, but the consideration based on our activity in generating the greenhouse gases.
The scientists from Harvard University suggested that either oceans and land has been affected by CO2 and high temperature, so subsequently, followed by the acidification happened in the oceans floor, meaning the habitats of the fish are disturbed. Corals reef is the main source of food for marine life. The degradation in amount will influence the nutrition content of fish since corals are the primary producer of food in marine ecosystem. On the other words, the disturbance occurring in ocean alters the nutrition within fish.
In the meantime, the weather is also affected by the changing of temperature and the higher of temperature creates stress either for animals – such as livestock – and plants particularly for fruits and vegetables. Technically speaking, the animals will demand more water resources as the same as the plants. If the competition of consuming water is not balance, so neither animals or plant could grow optimally. In the causal conclusion, both impacts cause unstable price and productivity in food preservation and security, which economically means the price will be higher but the nutrient contents are low.
Primary resources of food will be affected by climatic change
Water availability and extreme weather are the main impacts caused by global warming. Crops that need much water for consumption will be yielded particularly rice, wheat and maize. Whilst the others crops that demand much sunlight, such as wheat, rice and soybean for their photosynthesis process will be disturbed. Since those crops are the main sources of carbohydrate, our food security is in danger.
Food sovereignty must be achieved and the way to address that is by preventing the Earth becoming warmer. The level of carbon dioxide airborne which can cause broken in the ozone layers on the atmosphere must be reduced. However, the increasing level of carbon dioxide will give positive effect as crops also demand the gas for fuel. Nevertheless, the future scenario when the alternating of climate provides agricultural issue on maize and wheat which are consumed by many people either in northern parts of America and Europe. On the contrary, the rice will be “okay” as it is less sensitive to be affected.
Conclusion
The indirect cause of global warming indicates the disturbance in food security. The preservation of food will be fluctuating while the productivity of several primary foods, such as maize and wheat are predicted to be in small number. Furthermore, the main concern is concentrated in the nutrition contents within those crops because the climate change disturbs the biological process of the crops which is the diffusion of minerals with water.
References
[1] Myers, S. S. et al., 2017. Climate change and global
food systems: Potential impacts on food security and undernutrition. The
Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 38. Doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044356
Pistachio is one of the most consuming food. It has been recognized widely as one of the fat-burner food. However, recent study shows that one of the kind peanut is potentially to be organized as one of energy resources. Scientists in Iran have conducted that pistachio peanut can produce biofuel. Throughout this, the demands of biofuel in world can be achieved by organizing the waste of agricultural products particularly from pistachio peanut.
Pistachio is considered as the source of biofuel today
(image is downloaded from foodsafetynewsdotcom)
The increasing demands of fuel for transportation has affected the governments to find renewable resources as the fossil fuels will be running out. The needs of energy resources are not merely to supply the electricity aspect. The energy supply comprises gases and liquid forms which are needed for transportation, cooking, and the last is power plants. Many of these sectors are supported dependently from natural-gas and petroleum. Therefore, one of the most prominent solution comes from the agricultural.
As we know that fuel is produced from the derivation of hydrocarbon chains. In term of hydrocarbon chains, there are classifications based on the hydrogen and carbon bonds which are alkanes, alkenes, and alkyne. In crude oil, we divide the hydrocarbon compounds into several groups by distilling them throughout temperature. Subsequently, the process employs many methodologies requiring bigger expenses. This issue is solved by taking advantage from the biofuel process which directly produces varies of hydrocarbon compounds.
Methodologies of producing biofuel from pistachio
There are three methodologies in fabricating the biofuel from agricultural plants. First is from the chemical process named transesterification which employs extraction process to produce vegetable oil. We classify this method as first generation process and the product is called first generation of biofuel. The second process is employing the fermentation process conducted by the bacteria. This process produces methane gas as the bacteria consumes the waste to do metabolism.
Interestingly, the Iranian scientists suggested that the best method of producing biofuel is pyrolysis (Taghizadeh-Alisaraei, et al., 2017). The pyrolysis process has been proved to produce higher amount of product with various of biofuel products. Based on their research, the pyrolysis method produced 154.7-212.4 million liters and 18.8-40.5 thousands of tons of bio-oil and char respectively. On the other hand, both ethanol and biogas were accounted for 42-47.6 million liters and 103.5 million cubic respectively. Collectively speaking, those biofuels were manufactured by fermentation and digestion processes.
Research employing pyrolysis process proved that the method is better than any other method. We classify this method as second generation of biofuel as the product is methane. The third generation is produced by advantaging the algae as the raw source. The name third generation is coined because algae can produce more significant biofuel than its ancestors. Biodiesel, gasoline, butanol, methane and jet fuel can be produced from deriving the first product.
Pistachio as the future biofuel producer
It cannot be avoided that the producing of biofuel needs agricultural waste. For many countries, particularly in developing countries depending on agricultural sectors, biofuel can become the alternative income since the demands are increasing. The related paper shows that in Iran itself, the potential number can be achieved hundreds million liters of bio-oil, thousands tons of char and gas. This number is merely predicted only from pistachio.
Pistachio is one of the favorable peanuts among societies around the world. In the middle east, pistachio has been consumed for many years and it has been considered as a gift if someone visits the countries of producer. With the increasing trend of healthy life, pistachio also becomes one of food that is suggested in dietary. Therefore, the productions which currently are produced in tons by Iran, the US, Turkey and China will grow steadily and perhaps they elevate rapidly.
To be concluded, the agricultural biowaste from pistachio is potential to be functioned as raw material for biofuel production. According to the paper, the best method in producing the biofuel is pyrolysis because the results are in two forms which are char and bio-oil.
Reference Ahmad Taghizadeh-Alisaraei, Hossein Alizadeh Assar, Barat Ghobadian, Ali Motevali. Potential of biofuel production from pistachio waste in Iran. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) pg 510-522.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.01.111
The breakthrough of solar cell materials has been fabricated through perovskite method. This composite material is popular with the name of perovskite solar cells which has solar cell efficiency and cheaper than the usual method. The solar energy which is harvested from the materials has higher conversion. Interestingly, like others method, the materials of perovskite solar cells are composed from metal halide perovskites which could be considered as transitions metals.
One of the main challenge in energy issue is how to construct a sustainable energy. And the most prominent resource is the solar energy which can be harvested anytime we want. However, the scientists have met following issue since the efficiency of energy that is harvested is not high and expensive. The difficulties in constructing sustainable power plant is about the large scale fabrication.
Commonly, the solar cell was made from silicon which has four free electrons. However, silicon fabrication is considered as one the most dangerous method since the solar cell materials must be activated. Consequently, the researchers around the world have been trying to determine which materials are not hazard. And they suggested with the carbon which has similar characteristics with silicon. Nevertheless, the research of fabricating solar cells based carbon materials is being researched and it meets the previous challenge, the efficiency of energy that harvested.
Perovskite solar cells are currently researched in intensive ways. Quoting from paper written by Daipeng Guo et al., perovskite is a low-cost fabrication because it takes advantages from the organic-inorganic compounds such as alkyl and chloride. This solar cells material is considered of its excellent performance in optical and electrical properties particularly in broad light absorption, high charge mobility and tunable bandgap. As we know that the solar cells materials are designed exactly similar with semiconductor.
The perovskite structure was fabricated in three ways normally. In short, the first is mesoscopic layer which is prepared above the conductive oxide substrate. This substrate is a transparent material. The next step is the forming process by joining the n-type material which is in this study they used TiO2. This n-type material is a metal oxide semiconductor which is capable to do transporting or electron carrier. Eventually, the perovskite material is deposited on top of the n-type material. The most interesting fact according to this journal is the combination of conductive oxide substrate and electron transporting material because they are joined forming the compact layer. Subsequently, it produces p-type semiconductor which is organic and able to do transfer holes.
Based on this study, the fabricated device has shown interesting results. And one of them is the structure of NiO NS provides high porosity and large surface area which was the result of diffusion process between perovskite and the compact layer. As a result, the figures of photo-induced electron-hole pairs increased. This is one the properties of efficiency in solar cells materials. Furthermore, the perovskite solar cells materials were able to be designed by this group of researchers and it will affect the issue of energy particularly in harvesting sunlight into electricity.
*Nanosheet-based printable perovskite solar cells authorized by Daipeng Guo, Jiaguo Yu, Ke Fan, Haiyuan Zou, Bowen He.
