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University college of engineering-arni
THE ROBOT TREE!!!
An astonishing solution for “Global
Warming”……
PRESENTED BY,
CHANDRU P
ECE – 3rdyear
[email protected]
8870805759
HARISH S
ECE-3rd year
[email protected]
9543807286
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ABSTRACT:
The paper deals with the concept of a
synthetic tree called “ROBOT TREE”. The Robot
tree has the potential to absorb carbon dioxide
which is the major cause for the global warming.
Although methane, nitrous oxide, ozone,
fluorinated compounds also account for the global
warming, carbon dioxide is the major gas which
causes ninety percent of the global warming. The
concept of Robot tree was first put forward by an
American scientist ‘Klaus Lackner’. The
definition of global warming, causes and effects
of global warming, the solution we propose, how
the robot tree (synthetic tree) gives a solution to
the effect and the feasibility of the synthetic tree
are deeply discussed in this paper. This paper can
act as a guidebook to know about the technology
with its seeds and weeds and to get the importance
of the technology in the approaching future.
Their data show that an increase of
one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer now
than it has been for at least a thousand years. Out
of the 20 warmest years on record, 19 have
occurred since 1980. The three hottest years ever
observed have all occurred in the last eight years,
even.
INTRODUCTION:
We all know that forests are the
treasures of our earth. But now, mankind himself
has started to destroy forests –the treasures of our
earth. By cutting trees, not only that the rainfall
will be reduced, also the temperature will raise
enormously, which results in global warming.
This causes harm to the whole mankind. Thus the
scientists are giving call to protect forest and save
mankind. Research is going on regarding the
issue. In our paper we propose an astonishing
solution to save our earth from global warming.
WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING???
“Global Warming is defined as
the increase of the average temperature on
Earth. As the Earth is getting hotter, disasters
like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting
more frequent.”
Over the last 100 years, the
average temperature of the air near the Earth´s
surface has risen a little less than 1° Celsius (0.74
± 0.18°C, or 1.3 ± 0.32° Fahrenheit). Does not
seem all that much? It is responsible for the
conspicuous increase in storms, floods and raging
forest fires we have seen in the last ten years,
though, say scientists.
MAIN CAUSES FOR GLOBAL WARMING:
Carbon dioxide, water vapour,
nitrous oxide, methane and ozone are some of
the natural gases causing global warming.
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

CARBON DIOXIDE
Generating power by
Ninety-three percent of burning carbon based
all emissions
fossil fuels like natural
gas, oil, and coal,
decomposition,
accounting for about
one quarter of all global
emissions.
Agricultural activities,
landfills.
METHANE
Twenty times more
effective in trapping
heat in our atmosphere
25 times as potent as
carbon dioxide
Agricultural
soil
NITROUS OXIDE
management,
animal
manure management,
sewage
treatment,
mobile and stationary
combustion of fossil
fuel,
adipic
acid
production, and nitric
acid production.
OZONE
HYDROFLURO
COMPOUNDS
(HFCs).
PERFLURONIATED
COMPOUNDS (PFCs).
HEALTH
EFFECTS:

AND
Automobile
exhaust
and
industrial
processes.
Industrial
processes
such
as
foam
production,
refrigeration,
dry
cleaning,
chemical
manufacturing,
and
semiconductor
manufacturing.
Smelting of aluminium



Produce extreme weather events, such as
droughts and floods.
Threaten coastal resources and wetlands
by raising sea level.
Increase the risk of certain diseases by
producing new breeding sites for pests and
pathogens.
Agricultural regions and woodlands are
also susceptible to changes in climate that
could result in increased insect populations
and plant disease.
The degradation of natural ecosystems
could lead to reduced biological
diversity.
WHAT GLOBAL WARMING EFFECTS
ARE EXPECTED FOR THE FUTURE?
To predict the future global warming effects,
several greenhouse gas emission scenarios were
developed and fed into computer models.
They project for the next century that, without
specific policy changes




Global mean temperature should
increase by between 1.4 and
5.8°C (2.5 to 10°F).
The Northern Hemisphere cover
should decrease further, but the
Antarctic ice sheet should
increase.
The sea level should rise by
between 9 and 88 cm (3.5" to
35").
Other changes should occur,
including an increase in some
extreme weather events.
After 2100, human induced global warming
effects are projected to persist for many centuries.
The sea level should continue rising for thousands
of years after the climate has been stabilized. We
have weather up to 40 degree Celsius now.
ENVIRONMENTAL
Greenhouse gas emissions could cause a
1.8 to 6.3° Fahrenheit rise in temperature
during the next century, if atmospheric
levels are not reduced.
IMPACTS OF RISE IN MAJOR GREEN
HOUSE GAS CO2:
In air the carbon dioxide concentration
should be approximately 330 ppm (parts per
million).But due to environmental researchers the
carbon dioxide content will increase as follows,
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


2025405 to 469 ppm
2050445 to 640 ppm
2100540 to 970 ppm
We have weather up to 40 degree
Celsius now. It is expected that the weather will
increase in Tamil Nadu as follows.



In 2025 0.4 to 1.1 degree Celsius
In 2050 0.8 to 2.6 degree Celsius
In 2100 1.4 to 5.8 degree Celsius
I have read in a magazine recently
that the experiment done by the researchers at
Madurai Kamaraj University on robot tree is
successful. Hats off to them. It is really happy
news. We have studied in history that the kings of
olden days had planted trees on both sides of the
road. In the same way we hope that all the roads
will have robot trees on both sides in future to
prevent global warming and save the earth. It is
said that one robot tree is equal to 1000 natural
trees. Each robot tree looks more like a giant fly
swatter so as to remain as guards of mankind
SOLUTION WE PROPOSE:
We all know that forests are the
treasures of our earth. But, man started to destroy
forests and the scientists are giving call to save
forest. We all know that forests help to protect the
earth from global warming. By cutting trees, not
only that the rainfall will be reduced, also the
temperature will raise enormously, which causes
harm to the whole mankind. The research is going
on all the time to save the mankind from global
warming. Now, it has been found that robot trees
will help to tackle the problem of global warming.
In the air, the carbon dioxide content should be
330 ppm (part per million). Day by day it is
increasing which results in global warming.
Klaus Lackner, a professor of
Geophysics at Columbia University, is working
on an interesting concept: "synthetic trees".
The idea is to reproduce the process of
photosynthesis to capture and store massive
amounts of CO2 gas. Nearly 90,000 tons of
carbon dioxide a year, roughly the amount emitted
annually by 15,000 cars, could be captured by the
structure. Paired with a windmill, the carboncapture tree would generate about 3 megawatts of
power, Lackner calculates, making the operation
self-sufficient in energy.
WHAT IS ROBOT TREE???
The scientists are trying to make robot
to perform various activities to reduce the physical
and mental work of human being. The
combination of nature and robots is called
Robotany. The scientists Jill Coffin, John
Taylor and Daniel Bauen are researching on
robot tree. The robot tree does not look like our
ordinary tree. The structures of the stem, roots and
leaves are present in the robot tree. Does robot
tree help to solve the problem of global warming?
The scientists are trying to make robot
to perform various activities to reduce the physical
and mental work of human being. The
combination of nature and robots is called
Robotany. The scientists Jill Coffin, John Taylor
and Daniel Bauen are currently researching on
robot tree.
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HOW DOES A
FUNCTION???
ROBOT
TREE
Just imagine a normal tree. A
normal will have a root, stem and leaves. In
the same way, the robot tree also has root,
stem, branch and leaf like normal tree. Some
plastic poles are fixed in the stem part and in
between solar plates are fixed which act as
leaves. In the big poles small holes are made
and small poles are fixed. This will absorb
carbon dioxide in the air. In the inside of big
poles there will be calcium hydroxide liquid
and the absorbed carbon dioxide will be
dissolved
in
it.
The solar plates produce current
and pass current inside the stem, which will
separate carbon and oxygen. Oxygen,
hydrogen and vapour will come out. The
carbon will act with water and become
carbonic acid. The carbonic acid will pass
down through robots and will be absorbed by
the soil Once again.
A new “air extractor” technology
presented by Klaus Lackner, a professor of
Geophysics at Columbia’s Earth Institute,
offers something no other carbon capture
technology on the drawing board has.
Unlike conventional carbon capture and
storage (also known as geosequestration),
which absorbs C02 on-site (i.e. the affluent
stream of emissions from power plants),
air extractors absorb carbon dioxide from
any location on the planet. This means that
CO2 emissions can be captured from
nearly all large-emitting sources–from
stationary factories and power plants to
cars and planes in motion. These synthetic
trees can “thrive” in any location.
A computer-generated image
of Lackner‘s “synthetic trees.”
Synthetic trees don’t exactly
look like your average tree with green
leaves and roots. Although the design is
not finalized, Lackner predicts that the
device would look more like a post with
venetian blinds strung across it; a boxshaped extractor raised about 1,000 feet
tall, adorned with scaffolding lined with
liquid sodium hydroxide (commonly
known as lye). When exposed, sodium
hydroxide (lye) is an absorbent of CO2.
So, as air flows through the venetian blind
“leaves of the tree”, the sodium hydroxide
will bind the CO2, sifting out cleaner,
about 70-90% less CO2 concentrated air
on the other side. Lackner estimates that
an area of sodium hydroxide about the size
of a large TV screen (a 20 inch diagonal)
and a meter in depth could absorb 20 tons
of CO2 a year. Paired with a windmill, a
carbon-capture tree could generate about 3
megawatts of power.
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IS IT FEASIBLE???
The chemical process
of using calcium or sodium hydroxide to
absorb CO2 has been known for years but
the question of whether it can be done in
an affordable energy efficient manner has
not yet been fully answered. Constructing
and erecting the collector device is only
20% of the cost; the remainder of the cost
involves prying the CO2 loose from the
absorbent and storing it- an energy
intensive process. The back of the
envelope calculation of total cost supposes
3000 to 5000 rupees per ton captured,
which is large as compared to the 10002000 rupees per ton on cost that
proponents of a carbon tax or cap-andtrade scheme believe will stabilize
atmospheric emissions of CO2. It may
seem like too steep a cost to closely
consider, but Lackner believes “it’s worth
looking at things that start out even five
times too expensive “.
DEVELOPING CARBON CAPTURE
AND STORAGE (CCS):
Fossil fuels are not running
out anytime soon, and if we were to turn
all of them into carbon dioxide, we’ll have
a climate catastrophe. We may run out of
oil and gas; you can be skeptical of that.
But we won’t run out of coal. We either
abandon fossil fuels immediately within
the next 50 years or figure out a way to do
CCS.
“As we head toward 450, 550,
even 750ppm this century, environmental
leaders are getting serious about carbon
capture and storage. A 2005 IPCC report
concluded that “carbon capture and
storage “has the potential to reduce
overall mitigation costs and increase
flexibility in reducing greenhouse gases”.
Existing
carbon
capture
technology can reduce CO2 emissions
from coal-fired or natural-gas power plants
by 80 to 90 percent, estimates the IPCC
.energy efficiency and some renewables
are cheaper now, but if the climate begins
to tip out of control, then carbon capture
and storage can provide a planet-saving
insurance policy.
BASIC CHEMICAL
WITH ROBOT TREE:
Despite common concern that
CCS, and thus air capture too, will
discourage our society from moving to
clean energy alternatives.
REACTIONS
The reaction of sodium
hydroxide with carbon dioxide (as
carbonic acid) occurs essentially in two
steps, first a reaction from carbonic acid to
bicarbonate and then to carbonate. This is
a simple acid-base reaction. CO2 is an acid
anhydrite and NaOH is a base. So reaction
gives the salt Na2CO3 and water
another possible product is the salt
Na2CO3 that is produced if a 1:2 ratio of
CO2 and NaOH is used. A small
percentage of moisture present in the
absorbent material, (about 3%) is
important. CO2 reacts with this moisture to
form carbonic acid,
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EFFICIENCY:
CO2+H 2O->H2CO3
Which in turn reacts with the
hydroxide to form the salt of carbonic
acid, or sodium carbonate? The absorption
of carbon dioxide is expressed as follows:
The products of reaction are sodium
carbonate and water.
H2CO3 + NaOH -> NaHCO3 + H2O
NaHCO3 + NaOH -> Na2CO3 + H2O
DECARBITE:
DECARBITE®
is
an
absorbing product. This product is
sodium hydroxide carried on a silica base.
The natural affinity of sodium hydroxide
to acid gasses makes it a desirable material
to use in the absorption of the acid gas
carbon dioxide. The sodium hydroxide
content in DECARBITE® is high,
approximately 90%, and accounts for the
aggressive product performance and
exceptional capacity for absorption of
carbon dioxide.
The sodium hydroxide content
in DECARBITE® is high, approximately
90%, and accounts for the aggressive
product performance and exceptional
capacity for absorption of carbon dioxide.
The universally accepted
Carbon
Dioxide
absorbent,
DECARBITE® is a consumable
chemical absorbent. It is a specially
formulated mixture of Sodium Hydroxide
on to an inert silica carrier providing a
surface area especially suited for the rapid,
high performance and total absorption of
CO2 on contact.
For the rapid or high
performance quantative absorption of CO2
in the ppm range
DECARBITE
is
color
indicating, changing from greenish brown
to white upon carbon dioxide saturation.
The absorption of carbon dioxide removal
or any acid gas using DECARBITE is a
chemical reaction, not a physical one.
Carbon dioxide reacts with the sodium
hydroxide based absorbent and undergoes
a complete chemical change. This change
is irreversible; therefore the absorbent
cannot be regenerated for reuse. This
change is clearly perceptible and indicates
when spent material is to be discarded.
Occasionally, a condition
known as channeling can occur when the
gas flow finds holes or areas of least
resistance and a channel is formed. The
gas flow follows these channels through
the absorbent defeating the purpose of
scrubbing out the carbon dioxide.
DECARBITE eliminates this problem in
several ways; the silica binding to the
sodium hydroxide keeps the particles from
bonding in the presence of moisture which
is formed as a byproduct of the absorption
reaction. It also aids in preventing the
absorbent to coalesce into a solid mass
blocking gas flow and causing back
pressure across the absorption bed.
The association reaction of
NaOH with CO2 is at least 40 times faster
than NaOH + HCl at all altitudes below
the Na layer. Na species will not affect
stratospheric ClOx and O3 chemistry. The
conversion of carbon dioxide to
bicarbonate
is
complete
at
pH
8.3.Phenolphthalein can be used as a color
indicator for the titration.
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CONCLUSION:
Energy is really a place where
more technology is absolutely necessary.
Nearly one and half a lakh robot trees are
enough for purifying carbon dioxide in the
air for one year, approximately. One robot
tree is said to have the capacity to absorb
90,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year.
It is the amount of carbon dioxide released
by 15,000 cars in one year. But robot trees
will not help to bring rain. It will protect
the earth from global warming.
Cost :( app)
10 feet robot tree-50,00
200 feet robot tree-5 lakhs.
The cost of the robot tree may
be high, but the cost of not having
prominent technology for global warming
may cost even higher. There aren’t that
many large scale sources of energy could
be tapped at the scale the world needs
them. Hydro will never be enough, and
neither will wind. Solar, nuclear, and fossil
could be enough, but they all have flaws.
If we don’t place big bets on all three, we
could find ourselves with none of them
working, and we’ll have energy crisis of
unprecedented proportions. We have
studied in history that the kings of olden
days had planted trees on both sides of the
road. In the same way we hope that all the
roads will have robot trees on both sides
to prevent global warming and save the
earth. It is said that one robot tree is equal
to 1000 natural trees.
“Implement robot trees
Prevent global warming,
And thus,
Save the Earth!!!”
REFERENCES:
WEBSITES:
www.globalwarming.accuwhether.com
www.effectofglobalwarming.com
www.ebaumworld.com
www.solcomhouse.com
www.leamingfundamendamentals.com
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www.science.howstuffworks.com
www.sundaysenergy.com
www.globalwarmingart.com
www.gardenersource.com
www.wattwatt.com
www.breakthroughgen.org
www.theenvironmentalblog.org
www.geocraft.com
www.lime.com
www.medicalsearch.com
www.environment.uwe.ac.cn
www.drugs.com
www.greenplanet_solar_energy.com
www.upload.wikimedia.org