Technology and the environment
While China is approving the equivalent of two coal-fired power station per week, the question arises as to what technologies might be deployed to solve some of the problems we face, problems such as pollution of the air and seas, producing cleaner energy, and stalling or reversing environmental degradation by agriculture and industry.
Clean energy technologies can reduce dependence on fossil fuels and lower emissions. These include renewable energy sources such as solar PV and solar thermal wind turbines, (both onshore and offshore), hydropower (traditional and small-scale), geothermal energy, and wave and tidal power. We find out in practice which ones are appropriate for different locations.
Energy storage has a role to play, with lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, and green hydrogen storage.
Clean transport technologies can reduce emissions from cars, freight, aviation, and shipping. And factor in low/zero-emission vehicles, battery electric vehicles (EVs), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and electric buses, bikes, scooters
Alternative fuels can help, looking at sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), green hydrogen and ammonia for ships, advanced biofuels. Better management will involve smart mobility and public transport optimization and electrification.
Industrial and manufacturing technologies will help decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors through carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). This involves capturing CO₂ at power plants or factories and storing or reusing it. Green hydrogen can be applied to steelmaking, chemicals, and high-heat processes.
Agriculture and land-use technologies can reduce emissions, waste, and environmental degradation, using precision agriculture with drones and sensors to optimize water and fertilizer use.
Plant-based meats, along with lab-grown meats can cut animal emissions, while sustainable farming technologies include vertical farms and hydroponics, and methane-reducing feed additives for cattle.
Water and waste management technologies can address pollution and resource scarcity. Desalination, leak detection sensors, greywater recycling systems can help. And waste technologies include advanced recycling (chemical recycling and depolymerization), anaerobic digesters for organic waste, and waste-to-energy systems.
Bioengineering for pollution cleanup (called bioremediation) involves using or enhancing natural organisms to clean contaminated environments. These include microbes designed to break down oil spills, plastics, or toxic industrial chemicals, plants engineered to extract heavy metals from soil, algae strains that absorb excess nutrients from polluted water to prevent algal blooms. These clean soil, water, and air using biological processes instead of harsh chemicals.
Biology can be tailored to absorb or reduce greenhouse gases. This features engineered algae or bacteria that capture CO₂ more efficiently, trees or plants modified for faster carbon sequestration, and microbes that reduce methane emissions from agriculture, especially cattle digestion.
Sustainable agriculture and food production can be achieved with crops engineered to require less fertilizer, less water, or resist pests, nitrogen-fixing cereals to reduce synthetic fertilizer use, and engineered microbes for bio-fertilizers or bio-pesticides.
We can use biological systems to produce sustainable alternatives to fossil-fuel-based materials. Bioengineered microbes can produce bioplastics, and bring fermentation-based production of textiles, leather alternatives and rubber.
Engineered enzymes can break down waste materials and turn waste into useful products.
Examples include engineered microbes that convert organic waste into biofuels, anaerobic digestion enhanced with modified microbial communities to produce biogas, and biological systems that transform agricultural residues into fertilizers or bio-chemicals
Ecosystem restoration technologies can see biology used to heal damaged ecosystems. Engineered corals can be made more resilient to heat stress.
Bioengineered microbes can restore soil health and increase climate resilience in trees or key species.
While many environmental campaigners urge us to live more simply, to fly less, and to use ‘natural’ farming methods, it is technology that can play the largest role in bringing about a better world.
Madsen Pirie