Project Description
For our final project of our sophomore STEM year we had to choose a problem currently happening in the world that relates to biology and propose a solution for it. We had a little under a month to choose a problem, find different solutions, choose the best solution, and explain why our solution is the best. The problem we chose was carbon emissions, because in today's society we use fossil fuels to power many activities; which have caused out carbon emissions to skyrocket. The solution we had chosen was carbon capture and storage, which basically takes the carbon that would be in the air, captures it, and then stores it more later use. There are actually three forms of carbon capture and storage, these are post combustion, oxyfuel, and pre combustion. We chose to use the post combustion method because it was the best solution to fix our problem. After this we created a blueprint to explain how the system looks like and then made a slideshow to help explain our problem, solution, and reason for picking our solution.
Key Terms
Carbon capture and storage
This is when carbon that would be released into the atmosphere is captured and stores in a different location that will not effect the atmosphere. We chose this as our solution to fix carbon emissions because it will reduce the about of carbon in the air. There are three different methods, post-combustion, oxyfuel, and pre-combustion. Post-combustion
Is the the capturing of flue gas right after the fossil fuels have been burned, and putting it through different machines to strip the gas into pure carbon. This method is the most efficient out of the three carbon capture and storage methods. We also chose this method because it is the easiest to implement. oxyfuel
This is the burning of fossil fuel in pure oxygen to reduce the amount of by-products in order to be able to capture the carbon with less work. However, we did not choose this method because it is very inefficient and costs a lot to do. pre-combustion
Is method removes the carbon from the fossil fuel before they burn it, and therefore capturing the carbon before combustion. This method was not chosen because it is not very efficient and is a lot more difficult. so2 scrubber
This uses a semi-liquid limestone that easily reacts to the sulfur dioxide in the flue gas in order to remove or scrub it from the flue gas. The sulfur dioxide must be removed because it can become toxic and the end product should be pure carbon. This the first step to post-combustion. flue gas cooler
This takes the flue gas from the SO2 scrubber and cools it down to remove impurities. The flue gas has to be cooled down for the absorber. This is the second step in post-combustion. Absorber
Here an amine solvent absorbs the carbon with a chemical reaction. When the carbon is absorbed that means it is one step away from becoming pure carbon. This is the third step to post-combustion. stripper
This strips the carbon from the solvent by heating it to about 120 C which results i pure carbon. After this the carbon can be stored. This is the fourth step to carbon capture. |
BIOLOGICAL PUMP
SOLUBILITY PUMP
This is the process that transport the carbon from the ocean's surface into it's interior. However, like the biological pump it cannot be relied on too heavily since the ocean cannot absorb all the carbon that is being emitted. Therefore we did not choose this because it is not the best method. Climate Change
This is the changing of the climate in multiple places due to different weather patterns. The changing in weather patterns is mainly due to the greenhouse effect and increased carbon emissions. Our solution with help reduce the effects of climate change by slowing down the greenhouse effect. NAtural Resources
This are resources that come from the environment that can be used to survive and other purposes. Examples of natural resources are water, fossil fuels, and oxygen, With the rapid burning of fossil fuels, we will eventually run out. However, with our plan we could be able to help replenish this natural resources by storing carbon in depleted oil wells. Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is when gases, such as carbon, trap in the heat from the sun in our atmosphere. Due to the greatly increased amount of carbon emissions this has caused climate change because the Earth is heating up more and more. Using our method of carbon capture we can reduce the greenhouse effect by having less excess carbon in the air. FOSSIL FUELS
Natural fuel that has been created from long dead organisms. Examples of these are coal and gas. These also release a lot of carbon into the air when used which is bad for the environment. It is also one of the main sources of power in today's society which is also very bad for the environment and causing the greenhouse effect to increase. FLUE GAS
Gas released from a pipe or channel such as fireplaces, ovens, boilers, or steam generators. However, it is typically used to call the gas that is released into the atmosphere from power plants. For our project we called the gas we were taking the CO2 from flue gas since it comes from a power plant. SULFUR DIOXIDE (SO2)
This is a gas that is invisible, however it has a very nasty smell to it and most of it comes from the burning of fossil fuels. It has chemical reactions easily and can also very easily create acid rain, which is very bad for the environment. In post-combustion, this is the first thing that is removed from the flue gas. |
Blueprint
Presentation
Reflection
Overall this was a successful project because we were able to find how post-combustion worked and the best way of storing it. A few things that worked well was the splitting of research between team members because it make the work run faster and it also was more efficient because then you did not have anyone working on the same subject. Something that could have been improved on was choosing of things since we can all be a bit indecisive at times. Some peaks of the project was the was how we had one person researching different carbon capture methods, one person on materials, and another on storage research. This helped us figure out the best things the fastest that why we did not have overlap of research. Another thing that went well was the communicating between teammates about the information we had learned. This allowed each person to learn each area of information quickly without having to redo research. A pit was that we could have practiced the actual presentation a few more times before the actual presentation that way everyone was a bit more prepared. We also could have improved on work ethic since sometimes we got off task. Two things I was able to improve on during this project was the collaboration and conscientious learning. Collaboration was improved on due to all the team work this project took in order to finish it on time and to find all the information to fully understand the subject. We showed a lot of team work by splitting the research, taking turns on document owner, and all did our part on creating the presentation. Conscientious learning was improved on because there was a lot to learn about carbon capture and storage and you had to make sure you were learning all the details on how and why things were happening. Without be conscientious in learning I would not have been able to learn what happened in each step in post combustion. Two things I could improve on are character and communicator. Character could be improved on because I did not put much personality into the project and rather did it how it was suppose to be without much of a twist. Next time I could think of more example that can relate to San Marin more. Communicator can be improved on because we really kept it in the school even though we had a mentor, since after the first email we didn't say anything to them after. Next if we have a mentor we could talk with them more and learn their knowledge.