Hughes’ family has a tradition of breeding for generations. Now, he uses the farm to mine cryptocurrencies with a set of “buffalo plows” that use renewable energy from cow dung. Mining coins with renewable energy With six cylinder engines at 500 rpm, Hughes’ anaerobic digestion system can turn the methane that produces cow dung into electricity. BBC said. Under hypoxic conditions, microorganisms will eat hydrogen and carbon dioxide in cow dung and release methane gas, which can be burned to generate heat. The residue left after the anaerobic stage will be used as fertilizer. Philip Hughes’ farm (left) uses cow dung to produce renewable energy, feed livestock, and mine Ethereum. Photo: Crypto Hunter. According to Hughes, about two-thirds of the electricity generated from the anaerobic digester powers the nearby cattle ranch and caravan park. The rest of the energy is used for “buffalo plow” platforms to mine Ethereum. Hughes said Ethereum mining returns are good, but “depends on the date the question is asked,” referring to the cryptocurrency’s unpredictable price movements. Since May, the value of Ethereum has dropped from more than $4,000 to around $2,500, according to data from . CoinDesk on the evening of 10/6. Is mining with green energy possible? Not only digging Ethereum at the farm, Hughes also came up with the idea of ​​​​renting a “buffalo plow”. Josh Riddett, a representative of Easy Crypto Hunter miner provider, said that the cost to pay is about $ 25,400 for each “buffalo plow” set consisting of many computer graphics cards with strong configuration. According to Riddett, Easy Crypto Hunter’s mining rigs have been installed in 42 different locations. They use energy forms such as solar, wind, hydroelectricity and stored methane from anaerobic digesters. The longevity of the “buffalo plow” platforms causes concern about e-waste. Photo: Getty Images. However, representatives of some small hydropower projects are concerned that cryptocurrency mining may have an adverse impact on the environment. Meanwhile, the hydroelectric power plant operator said that the unstable value of cryptocurrencies makes it difficult to recover capital for the project. Some people said that crooks broke in and stole the mining rig. Besides hydroelectric power, the initiative to use renewable energy (green energy) to mine cryptocurrencies is also controversial. According to the BBC , renewable energy to mine coins can be used for other purposes such as powering electric cars or heating. Financial economist Alex de Vries said that using green energy to mine coins is wasteful. “The benefits these systems offer are very limited. Bitcoin can only process up to 7 transactions per second, while payment services like Visa can process 65,000 transactions per second if needed.” Vries is also concerned that the longevity of the “buffalo plots” could make them quickly become e-waste. Using renewable energy to mine coins is considered wasteful. Photo: BTCManager. In the UK, the Association of Bioresources and Anaerobic Digestion of the country said that the number of energy plants mining cryptocurrencies is quite small. While the future of cryptocurrency is unclear, several people have expressed interest in Hughes’ mining project. This farmer is fully aware of the risks of investing in assets whose value fluctuates, sometimes with just a single tweet from Elon Musk. If the cryptocurrency market crashes, Hughes said he will use the computing power of the “buffalo” to serve other purposes, such as hiring filmmakers to render. The owner of the net shop removed the machine, digs coins and waits for the translation to end Due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Mr. Nguyen Minh Quan (Thu Duc City) had to close the net shop, remove the graphics card to dig coins, earn extra income waiting for the reopening date.

Lightning can produce from 2 – 16% of the amount of hydroxyl. The hydroxyl radical is important in the atmosphere because it triggers chemical reactions and breaks down air pollutant molecules like methane. Decomposition of atmospheric pollutants Lightning may play a bigger role than we thought in a fundamental process that helps clean our air of pollutants, according to the results of a new study. Lightning strikes during storms produce large amounts of molecules called oxidizing radicals, which can break down gases such as carbon monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. These are atmospheric pollutants that can contribute to global warming and damage to the ozone layer. Carbon monoxide and methane enter the atmosphere from both natural and industrial sources. Methane is produced by the decomposition of plants, but is also released by oil and gas development and agriculture. Carbon monoxide and other polluting hydrocarbons can be generated by industries and wildfires. However, natural processes in the atmosphere, driven mainly by sunlight, have produced molecules called radicals, the most important of which are hydroxyls. These molecules are very chemically active (meaning that they are more likely to react with other molecules) and can react with pollutants to form new compounds that are harmless or potentially harmful. can be easily attached to water and released into the air. New research led by Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor William Brune has found that lightning produces far more hydroxyl molecules than previously known. His work shows that more than 10% of the supply of these scavenging radicals in the atmosphere can be generated by lightning storms. Use an airplane to fly through the storm Lightning’s ability to clean the atmosphere. The work involved flying NASA’s DC-8 research plane through deep convection thunderstorms to collect data. According to Professor Brune, this is not as dangerous as one might think. “Very interesting indeed. The pilots are phenomenal. They know what they’re doing. They know how to keep planes safe. But it’s really interesting because you can see deep convection and this is very close and personal,” said Prof. Brune. “We did this study in 2012, flying over central China. America and try to see what’s going into the storm chemically, what’s going to come up above. And to our surprise, we saw a very large amount of OHs (hydroxyl molecules). At first, we did not believe the signals received. They are huge, a thousand times larger than the largest mass we have ever seen.” The data collected from the aircraft was compared with data collected from radio receivers on the ground that track lightning flashes in the clouds. Both data sets confirmed the production of high amounts of hydroxyl radicals due to lightning strikes. Hydroxyl radicals are produced when the energy of lightning strikes breaks down water vapor in the atmosphere. “You can think of it like water that has removed the hydrogen atom and then wants to get that hydrogen back. So it becomes very active as it goes and tries to get the hydrogen back,” he said. That means the hydroxyl radical is very reactive with methane or carbon monoxide molecules. Climate change models need to be updated According to the scientists, about 1,800 lightning storms circulate around the planet, which leads the researchers to estimate that this phenomenon produces between 2% and 16% of the amount of hydroxyl present in the atmosphere.

A single lightning bolt can release up to a billion volts, tens of thousands of amps, travel at more than 434,000 km/h and in just a few millionths of a second reach 30,000 degrees Celsius – hotter than the surface of the Sun. Professor Brune admits that it is difficult to gauge the effectiveness of this process on a global scale. The results of this study were based on a limited number of flights over a small portion of the United States. There is still a lot of information that needs to be gathered to create a global picture. However, Professor Brune believes that the hydroxyl generated by lightning has a significant worldwide impact. Previous models suggested that lightning was not a significant contributor to the clean-up of the atmosphere. “Our best estimate right now is from 2%, which is quite important, to more than 10%, which is very important, for the total cleanup of the atmosphere. These estimates may change as our planet warms. Some climate change models show an increase in thunderstorm activity, which means more hydroxyl production and more cleaning of the atmosphere in the future. Other climate models suggest that there may not be much lightning, but lightning strikes will be more intense and may also alter the numbers. In any case, future models of climate change and global pollution will have to take into account this new information about the cleaning of the atmosphere, according to Professor Brune. Existing models may need updating.

Illustration. That could improve your chances of discovering organisms in distant worlds. How to find exoplanets Since 1999, a process of detecting exoplanets called the transit method has found thousands of other worlds by measuring the brightness of the stars that these planets orbit around. No one knows if these planets have any life, but if scientists observe the Earth using this method, they will probably detect signs of life. Once those signs are identified from Earth observations, experts can then find similar clues in the exoplanets. Scientists have recently described this approach as a mission called the Earth Transit Observer (ETO). This year, they presented this at the 52nd Moon and Planetary Science Conference. Most of the exoplanets we know of are found by transit, according to the US NASA Space Agency. Modern telescopes such as the Kepler Space Telescope and the Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) can detect exoplanets when the path of a planet dims a star’s light overnight. slice. This is true even for stars thousands of light-years away. Scientists can estimate the magnitude of a planet based on the amount of light it is blocking and calculate the size of its orbit. The size and temperature of a host star as well as the distance between the planet and the star will provide additional clues as to whether exoplanets have life or not. The measure of transit can also hint at an exoplanet’s atmosphere. During a transit, a star’s light is filtered through atmospheric molecules. This could help researchers identify elements like oxygen and methane there. Such signs are often so small that astronomers need more transit observations to confirm the existence of these elements – according to a statement by the scientists. However, other factors on exoplanets and stars can affect the reading of molecules in the atmosphere. For example, planets change with the seasons, weather patterns and ocean currents. In addition, the activity of the Sun, such as the rise and fall of the solar wind, and the formation of solar storms also change. Any of these conditions can shape the behavior of the atmosphere, thus potentially affecting the proportion of molecules and elements in their atmosphere. Illustration. Finding “New Earth” Lead author Laura Mayorga of the planet-finding mission article in the Journal of Planetary Science says that, to understand those variables, “you need to know your stars as well as predict your planets. what do you look like ”. This can be a challenge when both the stars and the exoplanets are alien. “This is a very difficult problem,” says exoplanet astronomer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel Maryland (USA). Luckily, scientists already have all of those answers for a pair of inhabited planets and stars. That is our Earth and the Sun. For the ETO mission, a small satellite with a device capable of imaging near-violet to near-infrared light spectrum will observe the Earth as it passes in front of the Sun. The spectrophotometer will check for water and carbon dioxide markers as well as biological markers – oxygen and methane, ozone and methane. Besides, it is to point out the favorable conditions for life (of course, also to see if the signs are unique to Earth or not). The transit technique used in such an investigation would be similar to the technique used by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study some of the thousands of exoplanets, scientists say. know moving through their host stars ”. Since we all know the climate change on Earth and the patterns of the Sun’s activity, scientists can observe how they affect the reading of atmospheric molecules and then apply them to our observations. close to the “new Earth”. “The Solar System is the only place where we know all the answers. We can test our technique, point out limitations and make a connection between the results, ”said Mayorga in the statement -“ Then we can connect that with Unanswered observations from exoplanets ”. Scientists plan to submit the ETO proposal to NASA’s Astrophysical Pioneer Program in the fall of 2021.

Cows and other ruminants use microbes in their stomachs to break down tough fibers that cannot be digested by humans. Artwork: AFP. Accordingly, one of the largest dairy producers in the world, the Fonterra Cooperative Group, is using a cocktail branded “Kowbucha”, a well-known kombucha fermented drink, to see if it can reduce the anesthetic gas. -tane produced from 4.9 million New Zealand cows. Unlike most developed economies, New Zealand is heavily dependent on agriculture, especially cows and sheep. So while other countries focus on cutting carbon dioxide, New Zealand has a much bigger problem with gases produced in animal stomachs. “The ferment produced can have quite a large impact on digestion, not just in humans, but also in animals,” said Jeremy Hill, a scientific researcher at the Fonterra Cooperative Group. Kowbucha is one of the company’s options, and the company is also looking at other options including seaweed. The technology is still in the early stages of research and, like other potential solutions to treat methane emissions from cows, questions about how to implement it are and whether the farmer will have enough. affordability or not. But what matters for New Zealand is whether it reaches zero net emissions. Methane, made up of carbon and hydrogen, is 56 times more effective than the effects of CO2 to heat the Earth when measured over 20 years. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global methane levels need to be reduced by 40-45% by 2030 to be able to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. . What’s more, because methane has been in the atmosphere for only a decade, reducing it can yield a relatively quick victory over CO2, which has been around for centuries. The Global Methane Assessment, to be released next week, shows that curbing man-made methane emissions at 45% by 2030 will drop by almost 0.3 degrees Celsius. global warming in the 2040s, preventing more than a quarter of a million premature deaths. But the scientific approach to reducing the emissions from cow digestion is much more difficult than to limit other methane emissions, such as oil and gas field outbreaks or leaks from fields. bury. Cows and other ruminants use microbes in their stomachs to break down tough fibers that cannot be digested by humans. Therefore, suppressing the methane they generate requires adjusting the biology and physiology of the animal. Like the Kowbucha solution, Fonterra is working on using red seaweed to suppress bacteria. The company partnered with the Dutch Royal DSM NV Nutrition Company to accelerate the rollout of Bovaer, a synthetic feed supplement that has been shown to reduce methane emissions by about 30%. The company, which has an annual $ 72 million research budget, has also researched the development of “climate-smart” cows whose stomachs release less methane, as well as research to develop vaccines. But producing climate-friendly cows takes years and vaccine development is “very, very difficult,” Hill said. Seaweeds, which have attracted a lot of attention in recent years, are difficult to eat in grassland animals, species that do not like the taste and may have safety problems with substances such as bromoform, A toxic chemical found in small amounts in ocean plants. Dairy companies are under increasing consumer pressure to reduce livestock carbon emissions, according to Dan Blaustein-Rejto, director of agriculture and food at Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research organization. Creating more climate-friendly products could allow them to gain an edge and could help fight competition from a growing number of alternatives, such as oatmilk, sandwiches. Vegan meats and other plant-based alternatives. If successful, the New Zealand efforts could serve as a test case for the global livestock industry, especially countries like Ireland and Brazil that rely on ruminants for a share of export revenue. . But the Climate Change Commission says technologies under development cannot be considered to meet the interim goal. Harry Clark, commissioner of the Climate Change Commission, said: “The silver bullet (referring to the easy, quick-PV solution) for dairy technology has only been taken into account for the past 12 years. It hasn’t worked yet. “

Illustration. TASS. Igor Pshenichnikov, responsible for the Amur-LNG project, said Russian experts are developing a reusable methane rocket engine for the Amur boosters that can redirect carriers. off the launch pad in the event of take-off malfunction. “We are planning to deploy a hot backup and guidance system in the Amur boosters,” he said. If one of the motors fails, it will be turned off while the operation of the other thrusters will be accelerated. The lead expert explained: “In this situation, the quest continuation option would be considered.” If damage occurs during takeoff or near the ground, the missile will not be able to launch due to its large mass. That is why the missile is diverted to a safe distance so as not to damage the launcher. Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos and Progressive Space Missile Center signed a contract in October 2020 for the design of a space missile system concept with reusable methane-fueled rockets. The first Russian Amur application. The missile will be launched from Vostochny aerospace in the Russian Far East at a stage of reuse. In February, Dmitry Baranov – Director of the Advanced Space Rocket Center (a division of Roscosmos) said work on the conceptual design of the methane Amur fuel missile will be completed by the third quarter of 2021. . Amur is a commercial missile carrier. With the reuse phase, it will be able to put the payload of up to 10.5 tons into orbit as low as Earth, compared with the 8.5 tons carried by the Soyuz-2 rocket.