Towards a Low Carbon Economy

Kick the Habit!
Towards a Low Carbon Economy.

Our living earth has a lot of challenges, increasing of population and consuming a lot of energy increased Environmental problems drastically. Yesterday June 5 was the World Environment Day. Each year, the United Nations agency responsible for coordinating World Environment Day activities UNEP, selects a city as the main venue for the international celebrations. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP.

An article on the United Nation's website quoted Secretary-General “Ban Ki-moon” as saying:
"Our world is in a grip of a dangerous carbon habit. Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions." This statement was in observance of World Environment Day. Read in detail here or download the PDF file.

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
MESSAGE FOR WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2008

KICK THE CARBON HABIT (click for PDF File)

Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions. Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit.
Coal and oil paved the way for the developed world’s industrial progress. Fast-developing countries are now taking the same path in search of equal living standards. Meanwhile, in the least developed countries, even less sustainable energy sources, such as charcoal, remain the only available option for the poor.
Our dependence on carbon-based energy has caused a significant build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put the final nail in the coffin of global warming sceptics. We know that climate change is happening, and we know that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we emit are the cause.
We don’t just burn carbon in the form of fossil fuels. Throughout the tropics, valuable forests are being felled for timber and making paper, for pasture and arable land and, increasingly, for plantations to supply a growing demand for biofuels. This further manifestation of our carbon habit not only releases vast amounts of CO2; it also destroys a valuable resource for absorbing atmospheric carbon, further contributing to climate change.
The environmental, economic and political implications of global warming are profound. Ecosystems -- from mountain to ocean, from the Poles to the tropics -- are undergoing rapid change. Low-lying cities face inundation, fertile lands are turning to desert, and weather patterns are becoming ever more unpredictable.
The cost will be borne by all. The poor will be hardest hit by weather-related disasters and by soaring price inflation for staple foods, but even the richest nations face the prospect of economic recession and a world in conflict over diminishing resources. Mitigating climate change, eradicating poverty and promoting economic and political stability all demand the same solution: we must kick the carbon habit. This is the theme for World Environment Day 2008. “Kick the Habit: Towards a Low Carbon Economy”, recognizes the damaging extent of our addiction, and it shows the way forward.
Often we need a crisis to wake us to reality. With the climate crisis upon us, businesses and governments are realizing that, far from costing the Earth, addressing global warming can actually save money and invigorate economies. While the estimated costs of climate change are incalculable, the price tag for fighting it may be less than any of us may have thought. Some estimates put the cost at less than one per cent of global gross domestic product -- a cheap price indeed for waging a global war.
Even better news is that technologies already exist or are under development to make our consumption of carbon-based fuels cleaner and more efficient and to harness the renewable power of sun, wind and waves. The private sector, in particular, is competing to capitalize on what they recognize as a massive business opportunity.
Around the world, nations, cities, organizations and businesses are looking afresh at green options. At the United Nations, I have instructed that the plan for renovating our New York headquarters should follow strict environmental guidelines. I have also asked the chief executives of all UN programmes, funds and specialized agencies to move swiftly towards carbon neutrality.
Earlier this year, the UN Environment Programme launched a climate neutral network -- CN Net -- to energize this growing trend. Its inaugural members, which include countries, cities and companies, are pioneers in a movement that I believe will increasingly define environmental, economic and political discourse and decision making over the coming decades.
The message of World Environment Day 2008 is that we are all part of the solution. Whether you are an individual, an organization, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is message we all must take to heart.

Preserving all life on earth

World Environment Day calls for end to CO2 addiction

Renewable energy in the past, at present and in the future

The major part of the present demand on Energy is satisfied with fossil energy (Oil , Coal and natural Gas) because of their ample, steady and comparatively cheap availability, their easy storage and easy distribution. The technical potential of Renewable energy in total would allow enlarging its contribution to the still rising worldwide demand on energy. But in many to most cases, the cost, especially the investment cost of the relevant energy technologies, are noticeably higher than the present cost to provide electricity, heat and fuels for the transportation sector by making use of fossil fuels.

Before industrialization renewable energy had been the only source of energy available:
- Firewood to provide heat;
- Biomass for food, for horses and other animals for hauling transportation vehicles;
- Wind for propulsion of sailing boats;
- Wind and water power to run mills.
The onset of industrialization (about 300 to 200 years ago) caused an extraordinarily fast rise of the demand on energy and a severe shortage of firewood in many countries. Fossil fuels soon became the dominant source of primary energy. The abundant and steady availability of fossil fuels and especially their low cost satisfied the newly arising additional demand on energy to provide any required fast rising amount of
- Heat,
- Electric power and
- Fuels for propulsion in the transportation sector.
At present, renewable energy can be used to provide only a rather limited amount of secondary energy. A more extended use of renewable energy at present is mainly handicapped by:
- Restricted availability (e.g. hydro power, biomass),
- Strongly fluctuating and intermittent availability of Hydro River and wind power and of sunlight,
- Comparatively high investment cost and cost of energy provided (e.g. sunlight, geothermal energy).
On the other side, it is of utmost importance to fight climate change caused by further greenhouse warming due to the increasing content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the exuberant burning of fossil fuels. All these implications should be regarded as a challenge for proper R&D of renewable energy technologies making best uses of:
- Interdisciplinary science and technology and
- Nano sciences and nano technologies for design and production of new materials
To achieve economically attractive solutions like e.g. photovoltaics, storage of electric energy in batteries, production of hydrogen par example via solar catalytic water splitting, fuel cells, conversion of Hydrogen together with Carbon dioxide CO2 extracted from the atmosphere to a synthetic hydrocarbon fuel.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Home Page

Vision for the future

This week We will have one of the most important day related to Renewable energy, It is WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY. Here in Osaka Prefecture University there are a lot of rojects relates to Increasing the Renewable energy production, Decreasing the Air and environment pollutants.
Our Dean Prof. Anpo is one of the Great scientists who works in this field for more than 40 years, His vision about Our mankind future is optimistic and applicable.

Vision for the future

What is Photochemistry?

Photochemistry is the study of light-induced chemical reactions and physical processes. A photochemical event involves the absorption of light to create an excited species that may subsequently undergo a number of different reactions. These include unimolecular reactions such as dissociation, ionization, and isomerization; bimolecular reactions, which involve a reaction with a molecule or atom to form a new compound; and reactions producing an emission of light, or luminescence. A photochemical reaction differs notably from a thermally, or heat, induced reaction in that the rate of a photochemical reaction is frequently greatly accelerated, and the products of the photochemical reaction may be impossible to produce otherwise. With the advent of lasers (powerful, single-color light sources) the field of photochemistry has advanced tremendously over the past few decades. An increased understanding of photochemistry has great implications outside of the laboratory, as photochemical reactions are an extremely important aspect of everyday life, underlying the processes of vision, photosynthesis, photography, atmospheric chemistry, the production of smog, and the destruction of the ozone layer.The absorption of light by atoms and molecules to create an excited species is studied in the field of spectroscopy. The study of the reactions of this excited species is the domain of photochemistry. However, the fields are closely related; spectroscopy is routinely used by photochemists as a tool for identifying reaction pathways and products and, recently, for following reactions as they occur in real time. Some lasers can produce a pulse of light that is only "on" for 1 femtosecond (10 -15 seconds). A femtosecond laser can be used like an extremely high-speed strobe camera to spectroscopically "photograph" a photochemical reaction.

Photochemistry, base of life

Photochemistry is concerned with reactions which are initiated by electronically excited molecules. Such molecules are produced by the absorption of suitable radiation in the visible and near ultraviolet region of the spectrum.
Photochemistry (فتو شیمی) is basic to the world we live in. With SUN as the central figure, the origin of life itself must have been a photochemical act. In the primitive earth conditions radiation from the sun was the only source of energy. Simple gaseous molecules like methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide must have reacted photochemically to synthesize complex organic molecules like proteins and nucleic acids.

Through the ages, nature has perfected her machinery for the utilization of solar radiant energy for all photobiological phenomena and providing food for the propagation of life itself.
Photobiology, the photochemistry of biological reactions, is a rapidly developing subject and helps the understanding of phenomena like: Photosynthesis (فتوسنتز), Phototaxis, Phototropism, Photoperiodism, Photodynamic action, Vision and Mutagenic effects of light. In doing so it tries to integrate knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology.


What is Photochemistry?
Photochemistry is the study of light-induced chemical reactions and physical processes. A photochemical event involves the absorption of light to create an excited species that may subsequently undergo a number of different reactions. These include unimolecular reactions such as dissociation, ionization, and isomerization; bimolecular reactions, which involve a reaction with a molecule or atom to form a new compound; and reactions producing an emission of light, or luminescence. A photochemical reaction differs notably from a thermally, or heat, induced reaction in that the rate of a photochemical reaction is frequently greatly accelerated, and the products of the photochemical reaction may be impossible to produce otherwise. With the advent of lasers (powerful, single-color light sources) the field of photochemistry has advanced tremendously over the past few decades. An increased understanding of photochemistry has great implications outside of the laboratory, as photochemical reactions are an extremely important aspect of everyday life, underlying the processes of vision, photosynthesis, photography, atmospheric chemistry, the production of smog, and the destruction of the ozone layer.
The absorption of light by atoms and molecules to create an excited species is studied in the field of spectroscopy. The study of the reactions of this excited species is the domain of photochemistry. However, the fields are closely related; spectroscopy is routinely used by photochemists as a tool for identifying reaction pathways and products and, recently, for following reactions as they occur in real time. Some lasers can produce a pulse of light that is only "on" for 1 femtosecond (10-15 seconds). A femtosecond laser can be used like an extremely high-speed strobe camera to spectroscopically "photograph" a photochemical reaction.

## Sunshine-to-Petrol Project Seeks Fuel From Thin Air

## A Solar Grand Plan (Scientific American )

## 13 Cutting-Edge Solar Energy Orgs

New Creation of previously manufactured Cell

Water splitting

A team of Italian scientists has created a sunlight-powered cell that produces pure hydrogen from water.
The team from the University of Milan and the University of Pavia are studying environmentally friendly ways to generate hydrogen, which could in future replace fossil fuels as a major energy source.
The new cell has two compartments filled with water and separated by an electrode made of platinum and titanium dioxide. .........
Please Read the full News from here: Chemical Technology

This Kind of Cell has been using for a long time here in our laboratory (Professor Anpo M. Lab., Osaka Prefecture University) for a long time.
Many Scientific Papers already published with using this kind of H-shape cell.

Electrochemical Photolysis of Water at a Semiconductor Electrode

Photoelectrochemical splitting of water is an environmentally friendly method of hydrogen generation based on renewable and apparently unlimited natural resources such as water and solar energy. Assisted by solar radiation, direct splitting of water into molecular hydrogen and oxygen was demonstrated for the first time in 1972 by Fujishima and Honda in a photoelectrochemical cell PEC with an n-type semiconductor TiO2 photoanode. (A. Fujishima and K. Honda, Nature 238 (1972), pp. 37–38. )
Since that time, many efforts have been undertaken to improve the conversion efficiency of the process but more than 30 years later this method is still far from commercialization. The reasons for this are fundamental and come as a consequence of a considerable mismatch between the spectra of light absorption in TiO2 and that of solar radiation. Many other semiconductors such as GaAs had been tried as a replacement for wide-band-gap TiO2 (3.0 eV rutile, 3.2 eV anatase) before it was realized that severe requirements imposed on the photoanode material could not be met simultaneously by any existing semiconductor. These requirements include:
(i) High stability and resistivity to corrosion and photocorrosion;
(ii) Low cost and availability;
(iii) Conduction band minimum, EC, above the H2O/H2 electrochemical level of water reduction
(iv) Valence band maximum EV below the O2/H2O electrochemical level of water oxidation
(v) Effective absorption of photons of the solar spectrum related to the band gap in the photon energy range of 1.6–1.9 eV.


As titanium dioxide fulfils all but the last one condition, it has been admitted that the best way to the improvement of the performance of the photoelectrochemical devices would be to modify the absorption spectrum of TiO2.
This can be achieved by shifting the fundamental absorption edge to longer wavelengths or by creating additional absorption features within the band gap. The methods tried up till now include:
1. Cation doping,
2. Sensitization with organic dyes
3. Composite materials
4. Anion doping with N, C or S.
However, whereas it is relatively easy to affect the absorption spectra of TiO2 by these methods, this is not in general true for the photocatalytic efficiency. The limiting factor is the recombination rate of the photoexcited electrons and holes.

## U.S. sees renewable energy use doubling by 2030

## Solar cell speeds hydrogen production