Could urea be a savior when it comes to reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide? By now we all know about injecting urea into diesel engine exhaust to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides. An Australian company has now received permission from the government of the Philippines to dump urea into the Sulu Sea of that country's coast.

However, this isn't just a scheme to dump waste offshore. This is actually being done in an attempt to mitigate global warming. The idea is pour the urea into the water to promote plankton growth, because plankton absorb a lot of atmospheric carbon dioxide as they grow. In theory this should be a good thing. In practice, however, little is understood about the possible side-effects of the plankton growth. But of course those sorts of side-effects never happen in the real world. Do they? This seems like a prime candidate for the law of unintended consequences.

More on plankton:

• Using geoengineering to combat climate change?
• One more feedstock to consider: biofuel from plankton

[Source: Wired]

A Spanish company, Bio Fuel Systems, claims to have developed a way to breed plankton and turn them into oil. The company was formed this year in eastern Spain after three years of research by scientists and engineers from the University of Alicante. While the company has generated some green colored crude oil created by the phytoplankton, no vehicle tests have been performed yet, since no attempts have been made yet to refine the oil. The system combines solar energy, photosynthesis and an electromagnetic field to create biopetroleum similar to the fossil kind. The company claims the new fuel will reduce CO2, is free of contaminants like sulphur dioxide, and will be cheaper than fossil fuel is now. The company will be able to start continuous production in 14 to 18 months.

[Source: Reuters]