13. Climate action

One possible means of limiting global warming is the use of a technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, referred to as negative emissions. Researchers in the Division of Energy Technology have developed a combustion technology, known as “chemical-looping combustion” in which waste carbon dioxide is extracted separately rather than being mixed with air. The technology makes it cheap and easy to capture carbon dioxide instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. There are currently 34 pilot installations of chemical-looping combustion all around the world.

Chalmers is also conducting research into the link between the climate and the best way of using land. The research includes issues such as the impact of forests and agriculture on climate change.

Professor Christian Azar from Chalmers was one of the experts behind the special report “Climate Change and Land” by the UN’s climate panel, IPCC.

The ELISE research project (Electric Air Transport in Sweden) helped to establish the start-up company Heart Aerospace, which has the goal of producing a 21-seater electric aircraft for short-haul travel, which should be ready to take to the air in 2025.

The food we eat accounts for a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions in Sweden and a quarter of emissions globally. Chalmers researchers study food from many different perspectives, including climate. One conclusion drawn by the research is that, in certain respects, organically grown food is worse for the climate because larger areas of land are required.

Transporting goods by train instead of by truck is one of the keys to more sustainable transport in Europe. But the transition to rail is difficult, and one major problem is that the alarm limits for loading on rail are not coordinated between European countries. However, as a result of work by researchers at Chalmers, new European rules have been introduced that will make it easier to transport goods by train.

You can find additional projects by searching the Chalmers research database research.chalmers.se/en.

Published: Thu 02 Jan 2020.