Research

Contemporary ice sheet thinning drives subglacial groundwater exfiltration with potential feedbacks on glacier flow 8/18/2023

Contemporary ice sheet thinning drives subglacial groundwater exfiltration with potential feedbacks on glacier flow

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried and Alexander A. Robel, Shi J. Sim, Colin Meyer, and Mines alum Chloe D. Gustafson write about how groundwater-laden sedimentary aquifers are extensive beneath large portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. A reduction in the mechanical loading of aquifers is known to lead to groundwater exfiltration, a discharge of groundwater from the aquifer. Here, we provide a simple expression predicting exfiltration rates under a thinning ice sheet.   August 18, 2023. 

Critical Minerals Outlooks Comparison 8/15/2023

Critical Minerals Outlooks Comparison

Payne Institute Research Associate Juliet Akamboe, student researchers Ebenezer Manful-Sam, Felix Ayaburi, Director Morgan Bazilian and IEF’s Mason Hamilton write a critical minerals report about how with the acceleration of energy transitions, clean energy technologies have rapidly emerged as the segment with the fastest growth in demand in critical minerals supply chains and markets.  Highlighting key insights for critical minerals decisionmakers, the report analyses eleven publicly available reports from eight agencies and organizations across different geographies, spanning from 2019 to 2023.  August 15, 2023.

The Economics of Natural Gas Flaring and Methane Emissions in US Shale: An Agenda for Research and Policy 7/26/2023

The Economics of Natural Gas Flaring and Methane Emissions in US Shale: An Agenda for Research and Policy

Mark Agerton, Payne Faculty Fellow Ben Gilbert, and Gregory B. Upton Jr. write about how natural gas flaring and methane emissions (F&M) are linked environmental issues for US shale oil and gas operations. Flaring refers to burning natural gas when regulatory, infrastructure, and market constraints make it infeasible to capture it when drilling for oil. In this paper, we lay out an agenda for researchers and policy makers. We describe why F&M are linked, both physically and in terms of policy. July 26, 2023.

Lights on the Water? Accumulating VIIRS boat detection grids in Southeast Asia spanning 2012–2021 7/26/2023

Lights on the Water? Accumulating VIIRS boat detection grids in Southeast Asia spanning 2012–2021

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Christopher D. Elvidge, Tilottama Ghosh, Namrata Chatterjee, and Mikhail Zhizhin write about how it has been known since the 1970s that heavily lit fishing boats can be detected with nighttime visible low-light imaging data collected by polar-orbiting meteorological sensors (Croft, 1979). The two-sensor series having low-light imaging capabilities include the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) and the NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).  The VIIRS sensor provides key improvements (Elvidge et al., 2013) in low-light imaging from 2012 to the present and the pixel resolution (742 m × 742 m) is finer and has in-flight calibration to radiance units.  The VBD data were produced in near real-time and the nightly record extends back to April 2012 in Asia. In addition to the nightly product, the EOG also made monthly and annual summary grids.  Starting on page 33. July 26, 2023.

ACCOUNTING FOR NON-MARKETED CAPITAL 7/25/2023

ACCOUNTING FOR NON-MARKETED CAPITAL

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Graham Davis and Robert Cairns write about how intangible capital is a key input to production that is distinct from tangible capital. Most forms of tangible and intangible capital have observable, pecuniary values. Their complement is non-marketed capital. This paper studies non-marketed capital from the points of view of an investor contemplating investing in a project and of a manager running the project. At the point of investment, an apparent positive net present value is realized through the marshalling of non-marketed capital.  July 25, 2023.

Transitional dynamics from mercury to cyanide-based processing in artisanal and small-scale gold mining: Social, economic, geochemical, and environmental considerations 7/21/2023

Transitional dynamics from mercury to cyanide-based processing in artisanal and small-scale gold mining: Social, economic, geochemical, and environmental considerations

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone and Faculty Fellow Nicole Smith and others examine the environmental issues around artisanal gold mining, in particular highlighting often-overlooked problems that are occurring as more of the sector incorporates cyanide processing. The common sense among policy makers and the international community is that anything that decreases use of mercury is an improvement – but what we show is that the current transition phase, with mercury and cyanide use overlapping, actually makes environmental problems worse. In this regard, it is important not to be complacent or imagine that artisanal gold mining’s environmental problems will fix themselves. July 21, 2023.

Mining Profile – Ghana 7/13/2023

Mining Profile – Ghana

The Payne Institute looks at the current mining profile of Ghana, in the first of a series of informational snapshots of mining around the world.  July 13, 2023.

Sonnenberg recognized with RMS AAPG Robert J. Weimer Lifetime Contribution Award 7/12/2023

Sonnenberg recognized with RMS AAPG Robert J. Weimer Lifetime Contribution Award

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Stephen Sonnenberg was awarded the RMS AAPG Robert J. Weimer Lifetime Contribution Award for contributions to the practice of geosciences and petroleum geology in the Rocky Mountain region.  Sonnenberg’s research focuses on unconventional reservoirs, sequence stratigraphy, tectonic influence on sedimentation, and petroleum geology.  July 12, 2023.

Characterization work aims to address cost of green hydrogen technologies 7/10/2023

Characterization work aims to address cost of green hydrogen technologies

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Svitlana Pylypenko is featured in this article about how the appeal of green hydrogen is clear, but before hydrogen fuel cell and electrolyzer technologies can be adopted on a commercial scale, questions of cost, durability and performance still need to be addressed.  Including looking for answers to questions of cost, durability and performance at the microscopic — and even nano — scale.  July 10, 2023.

Can CSR strategy mediate conflict over extraction? Evidence from two mines in Peru 6/19/2023

Can CSR strategy mediate conflict over extraction? Evidence from two mines in Peru

Payne Institute Advisory Board member Deborah Avant, Devin Finn, and Tricia D. Olsen write about how corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies can shape political contexts to mediate or exacerbate the resource curse. Using a relational pragmatic approach—one that recognizes actors are dynamic and focuses on the interactions that shape how they see their interests—we develop expectations about two ideal type CSR strategies: transformational and transactional and their relational implications. June 19, 2023.

Electric regionalism: Path dependence, development, and the African power pools 6/7/2023

Electric regionalism: Path dependence, development, and the African power pools

Payne Faculty Fellow Kathleen Hancock writes about how low access, unreliable supply, and high- cost electricity have hampered many African states’ ability to grow their economies. Even high- income states, like South Africa, are increasingly challenged to provide reliable electricity. To help address this shortfall, African states belong to five regional power pools: organizations that link together electricity grids of member states and cre-ate markets to buy and sell electricity across borders.  June 7, 2023.

Analyzing a deadly confrontation to understand the roots of conflict in artisanal and small-scale mining: A case study from Arequipa, Peru 6/7/2023

Analyzing a deadly confrontation to understand the roots of conflict in artisanal and small-scale mining: A case study from Arequipa, Peru

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone, Faculty Fellow Nicole M. Smith, Eliseo Zeballos Zeballos, Rolando Quispe Aquino, Ubaldo Tapia Huamaní, Jerónimo Miguel Gutiérrez Soncco, Guido Salas, Zacarias Madariaga Coaquira, Jose Herrera Bedoya write about how conflicts around large-scale mining are common and widely researched, but artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) features sparingly in the mining conflict literature, despite the prevalence of ASM conflicts. This paper examines ASM conflicts, focusing on a central case study from Arequipa, Peru, where violence between rival ASM groups and a mining company resulted in 15 deaths between 2020 and 2022. June 7, 2023.

Colorado (CDPHE/AQD) Rule Making Verifying Methane Emissions Reporting 6/5/2023

Colorado (CDPHE/AQD) Rule Making Verifying Methane Emissions Reporting

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton, and Student Researchers Ebenezer Manful-Sam, Wyatt Lindsey and Pierluigi Nichilo write about how reducing greenhouse gases, especially methane emissions, from oil and gas production activities is one of the major themes of regulatory actions both at state, provincial and federal levels in North America as part of society’s path for addressing climate change. One of the biggest barriers for methane reduction is not financial or technology, but rather a lack of rigorous and transparent data. In 2021, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission adopted a rule that limits how much greenhouse gas can be emitted per barrel of oil and gas produced.  June 5, 2023.

Colorado School of Mines and Carbon America awarded $32.6M from U.S. Department of Energy CarbonSAFE Initiative 5/19/2023

Colorado School of Mines and Carbon America awarded $32.6M from U.S. Department of Energy CarbonSAFE Initiative

Mines Director of Global Energy Future Initiative – Integrated CCUS Initiative Manika Prasad is part of a team of Mines researchers that received funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the development of a regional CO2 storage hub in concert with local stakeholders. Colorado School of Mines, Carbon America and Los Alamos National Laboratory have been awarded $32.6 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative to advance the development of a potential carbon storage hub for the Pueblo, Colorado area.  May 19, 2023.

Colorado gets $32 million to create carbon-stuffing hub underground at Pueblo 5/18/2023

Colorado gets $32 million to create carbon-stuffing hub underground at Pueblo

The Colorado School of Mines Global Energy Future Integrated CCUS Initiative received $32 million from the federal Department of Energy to study and develop a carbon sequestration hub in southern Colorado, considered a key to meeting greenhouse gas reduction goals in coming years.  The hub will be located in the Pueblo area, where massive carbon emissions from two power plants and cement kiln, among other major carbon producers, may need to be stuffed underground to meet state and U.S. climate change targets. The large DOE grant gives School of Mines and partners — including Los Alamos National Laboratory — financing to define and drill test sites, and set the boundaries for a carbon sink in the Lyons Sandstone formation thousands of feet beneath Pueblo County.  May 18, 2023.  

Colorado School of Mines researcher helps validate new approach for “forever chemical” blood testing 5/16/2023

Colorado School of Mines researcher helps validate new approach for “forever chemical” blood testing 

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins is featured in this article about how a study shows that self-collected blood samples had similar PFAS detection frequencies to traditional blood draws.  In addition to being more accessible, the self-collected whole-blood samples may even offer a more comprehensive picture of the PFAS in our blood, including compounds such as FOSA.  May 16, 2023.

Self-Collection Blood Test for PFASs: Comparing Volumetric Microsamplers with a Traditional Serum Approach 5/15/2023

Self-Collection Blood Test for PFASs: Comparing Volumetric Microsamplers with a Traditional Serum Approach

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins is a co-author on this paper about how a remote sampling approach was developed at Eurofins for quantifying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in whole blood samples collected using volumetric absorptive microsamplers (VAMSs), which allow for self-collection of blood using a finger prick. This study compares PFAS exposure measured by self-collection of blood using VAMSs to the standard venous serum approach.   May 15, 2023.

How can we decarbonize the metals industry? Mines researchers are working toward the answers. 5/3/2023

How can we decarbonize the metals industry? Mines researchers are working toward the answers

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow John Speer is featured in this article about how in the U.S. and around the world, there’s a push to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the metals industry.  Decarbonization in the metals industry has already begun in the United States, and we’re one of the cleanest steel industries in the world.  May 3, 2023.

Decarbonizing the cement and concrete industry: A systematic review of socio-technical systems, technological innovations, and policy options 4/23/2023

Decarbonizing the cement and concrete industry: A systematic review of socio-technical systems, technological innovations, and policy options

Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Dylan D. Furszyfer Del Rio, Aoife M. Foley, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Jinsoo Kim, and Joao M. Uratani write about how although concrete has become an essential and ubiquitous construction material for modern society, its use has significant environmental impacts. This paper describes the CCI’s sociotechnical system and energy and environmental impacts, highlights barriers and opportunities for CCI decarbonization, outlines technologies and policies to mitigate negative CCI impacts, and proposes gaps and future agendas for CCI decarbonization research.  April 23, 2023.

Colorado School of Mines partners with Aquagga to commercialize PFAS destruction technology 4/11/2023

Colorado School of Mines partners with Aquagga to commercialize PFAS destruction technology

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins is featured in this article about how Mines researchers developed HALT-PFAS.  This promising technology for the destruction of so-called “forever chemicals” developed by Colorado School of Mines researchers has been licensed by a cleantech startup that aims to use the Mines-patented process to halt the growing environmental and public health challenge posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.  April 11, 2023. 

Mines professor demystifying social responsibility in engineering 4/5/2023

Mines professor demystifying social responsibility in engineering

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jessica Smith is featured in this article about how working engineers manage the social and public accountability dimensions of their careers.  Working engineers solve technical problems on a daily basis—that’s a big part of why many choose to go into the field in the first place. But they also regularly grapple with sometimes less obvious questions that deal with the social, environmental, economic, cultural and ethical facets of their work. April 5, 2023.

Six bold steps towards net-zero industry 3/30/2023

Six bold steps towards net-zero industry

Benjamin K. Sovacool, Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian, Jinsoo Kim, and Fellow Steven Griffiths write about how the rapid and deep decarbonization of global industry is key to reaching climate policy targets, yet it remains an incredibly difficult challenge. They propose six bold steps for accelerating progress on achieving net-zero industrial carbon emissions by mid-century with a focus on lessons learned and emerging analysis from both the Global North and Global South, the latter of which we consider as low or middle income countries primarily located in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  March 30, 2023.

Samples from Front Range oil and gas wells detect seeping natural gas, benzene and other chemicals 3/22/2023

Samples from Front Range oil and gas wells detect seeping natural gas, benzene and other chemicals

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jennifer Miskimins contributes to this article about Colorado regulators say the subset of wells tested were known to be troubled, and many have already been plugged and abandoned. Natural gas and chemicals may be seeping through compromised barriers in northeastern Colorado oil and gas wells, according to a federal study, but state regulators and other researchers caution that analysis may overstate the problem.  March 22, 2023.

The Regulation of CO2 Pipelines and Ensuring Public Safety 3/15/2023

The Regulation of CO2 Pipelines and Ensuring Public Safety

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield and student researcher Dwi Nuraini Siregar write that the 45Q tax credit is anticipated to play an important role in accelerating the expansion of the CO2 pipeline network in the United States by providing a financial incentive for businesses to invest in carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies and supporting infrastructure.The Inflation Reduction Act’s amplification of this credit has already increased the number of CCUS projects. March 15, 2023.

Colorado School of Mines part of multi-university team selected by DoD for social science research 3/13/2023

Colorado School of Mines part of multi-university team selected by DoD for social science research

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Faculty Fellow Mark Deinert will be contributing to research on critical minerals, battery technology, and reducing dependence on hostile suppliers in the clean energy supply chain along with Payne Institute Fellow Professor Joshua Busby, LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, University of Texas, Austin and Professor Emily Holland, U.S. Naval War College.  March 13, 2023.  

The life and death of a subglacial lake in West Antarctica 3/9/2023

The life and death of a subglacial lake in West Antarctica

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried and others write this paper that looks at the last 50 years, and the discovery and initial investigation of subglacial lakes in Antarctica have highlighted the paleoglaciological information that may be recorded in sediments at their beds. In December 2018, we accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake, West Antarctica, and recovered the first in situ subglacial lake-sediment record—120 mm of finely laminated mud. We combined geophysical observations, image analysis, and quantitative stratigraphy techniques to estimate long-term mean lake sedimentation. March 9, 2023

First-ever layered lake-sediment sample extracted from subglacial Antarctica 3/9/2023

First-ever layered lake-sediment sample extracted from subglacial Antarctica

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried is part of a NSF-funded project Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA), that have extracted a layered lake-sediment sample that gives important details into past dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet and its cold, dark ecosystems. Their findings from analysis of the sediment sample, give important insight into the larger dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet and its history, including when the ice sheet was smaller than its current size. March 9, 2023

Addressing the Need for Accurate and Comparable Greenhouse Gas Data: The COMET Framework

Addressing the Need for Accurate and Comparable Greenhouse Gas Data: The COMET Framework

Former Payne Institute Program Manager Jordy Lee Calderon writes about how the Coalition on Materials Emissions Transparency (COMET) began as a collaboration between the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), RMI (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute), and the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN Climate Change). Its objective is to advance accurate and transparent greenhouse gas accounting through a harmonized set of principles, standards, and reporting requirements. March 2, 2023.

Aurora, other communities await first US limits on ‘forever chemicals’ spills at military sites 3/2/2023

Aurora, other communities await first US limits on ‘forever chemicals’ spills at military sites

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins  contributes to this article and states that “It is very clear there is PFOS and PFOA (on Buckley) and they are at orders of magnitude above the health advisory — which is really not a surprise, being that that is very typical for a foam-fire-fighting site.” He went on to add that this is a national-scale issue that is being addressed everywhere in the country. March 2, 2023.

Carbon capture utilization and storage in review: Sociotechnical implications for a carbon reliant world 3/2/2023

Carbon capture utilization and storage in review: Sociotechnical implications for a carbon reliant world

Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, Director Morgan Bazilian, CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield, student researchers Hope McLaughlin, Maia Menefee, Austin Kinzer, Tobias Hull, along with Benjamin K.Sovacool, and Jinsoo Kim write about how the decarbonization of industry and industrial systems is a pressing challenge given the relative lack of low-carbon options available for “hard to decarbonize” sectors such as steelmaking, cement manufacturing, and chemical production. This review takes a systematic and sociotechnical perspective to examine how CCUS can support industrial decarbonization and relevant associated technical, economic, and social factors.  March 2, 2023.

Market failures and willingness to accept smart meters: Experimental evidence from the UK 3/1/2023

Market failures and willingness to accept smart meters: Experimental evidence from the UK

Payne Institute Fellow Greer Gosnell and Daire McCoy write about how the sustainable energy transition, governments and innovators are encouraging households to adopt smart technologies that allow for increased flexibility in energy grids. This research contributes experimental evidence regarding the import of oft-cited market failures by studying the case of a relatively new technology – the smart electricity meter – in the context of an unprecedented UK-wide government-led public participation campaign. March 1, 2023.

Energy efficient living: Mines professor leads project to refurbish neighborhood 2/28/2023

Energy efficient living: Mines professor leads project to refurbish neighborhood

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Paulo Tabares-Velasco leads a collaborative project to cut carbon emissions, increase energy efficiency in a Colorado manufactured home community.  Many new-construction houses are designed with energy efficient and carbon emission-reducing features, like solar panels and highly insulated windows. A project led Tabares-Velasco aims to extend those energy benefits to a whole community of manufactured homes in Colorado. February 28, 2023.

Matthew Siegfried wins NSF CAREER Award for Antarctic ice stream research 2/23/2023

Matthew Siegfried wins NSF CAREER Award for Antarctic ice stream research

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried has received an NSF Career award for work to improve our understanding of Antarctic ice streams, and their potential impact on global sea level change. He will focus on the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica, whose flow has been slowing over the course of several decades. February 23, 2023.

Night-Time Detection of Subpixel Emitters with VIIRS Mid-Wave Infrared Bands M12–M13. 2/21/2023

Night-Time Detection of Subpixel Emitters with VIIRS Mid-Wave Infrared Bands M12–M13

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Research Associate Mikhail Zhizhin, Director Christopher D. Elvidge and Alexey Poyda talk about a new approach to subpixel infrared (IR) emitter detection in VIIRS mid-wave (MWIR) infrared bands M12–M13 at night, based on the presence of a tightly clustered background diagonal present in full granule scattergrams of M12 versus M13 radiances. This diagonal is found universally in night-time VIIRS data collected worldwide. The diagonal feature is absent during the day due to solar reflectance. The existence of the diagonal is attributed to close spacing in the bandpass centers of the VIIRS’ two MWIR bands.  Februay 21, 2023.

VIIRS Day/Night Band Power Outage Analysis for the February 6, 2023 Earthquake in Turkey and Syria 2/16/2023

VIIRS Day/Night Band Power Outage Analysis for the February 6, 2023 Earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Research Associates Tilottama Ghosh and Mikhail Zhizhin, and Director Christopher D. Elvidge use satellite imagery to look at the power outage in Turkey and Syria caused by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck in the Gaziantep province in Turkey.  February 16, 2023.  

Colorado School of Mines, American Gem Trade Association unveil strategic relationship 2/7/2023

Colorado School of Mines, American Gem Trade Association unveil strategic relationship

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Nicole Smith will lead the effort in a multiyear project, that will examine supply chain for at least 10 colored gemstones — sapphire, ruby, emerald, tanzanite and more – supply chains in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. Different types of mining and sizes of operations will be examined as well as different environmental and social contexts. In each location, data on the top colored gemstone export will be analyzed — a minimum of 10 different colored stones will be scrutinized.  February 7, 2023.  

A forward looking perspective on the cement and concrete industry: Implications of growth and development in the Global South 2/3/2023

A forward looking perspective on the cement and concrete industry: Implications of growth and development in the Global South

Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, writes about how the cement and concrete industry serves as the foundation for modern infrastructure. Hence, it has a massive global impact on both energy demand and carbon emissions and so is a key focus of industrial decarbonization efforts. The relationship between cement and concrete production and societal development is made more apparent as a result of the limited degree of international trading of these products. 2/3/2023.

Managing the future of water — in the West and beyond 2/2/2023

Managing the future of water — in the West and beyond

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Adrienne Marshall is among Mines alumni and researchers that are at the forefront of U.S. water management challenges, whether that’s through mitigation, water reuse, new water systems or alternative renewable energy systems. The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the southwestern U.S., with nearly 40 million Americans in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming relying on the Colorado River System for drinking water and to support farming and recreation. However, the Colorado River Basin water supply is dwindling, leading to water management challenges and an uncertain future of water in the West. February 2, 2023.

Musical chairs: Analyzing the evolution of stakeholders in Peru’s mining sector through dialogue tables 1/30/2023

Musical chairs: Analyzing the evolution of stakeholders in Peru’s mining sector through dialogue tables

Payne Institute Research Associates Alicia Polo y La Borda Cavero and Aaron Malone, Yezelia Caceres Cabana, and Ronaldo Quinta Soto write about how mining is an important but often contentious activity. Despite substantial research on mining dynamics and conflict, there has been less analysis of the stakeholders. This paper centers stakeholders and analyzes the case of Peru, asking: Who are the stakeholders in dialogues and conflicts around Peru’s mining sector? How have stakeholders changed over time, and how do they vary across contexts?  January 30, 2023.

IFC Net Zero Roadmap for Copper and Nickel Value Chains 1/30/2023

IFC Net Zero Roadmap for Copper and Nickel Value Chains

The Payne Institute is a collaborator in the creation of the IFC Net Zero Roadmap for Copper and Nickel Value Chains.  The Roadmap is a net zero transition guide that sets out a science-based decarbonization strategy for copper and nickel mining value chain actors. It highlights how mining sector actors can lower their emissions footprints, including scopes 1 and 2, and a subset of scope 3. It shows how to take advantage of the growth in demand coming from end users such as EVs, solar, wind, and storage. And it demonstrates how a net zero strategy offers opportunities to improve broader ESG impacts and performance, access sustainable finance, and contribute to a just energy transition.  January 30, 2023.  

Pathways to net-zero emissions from aviation 1/30/2023

Pathways to net-zero emissions from aviation

Candelaria Bergero, Payne Institute Fellow Greer Gosnell, Dolf Gielen, Seungwoo Kang, Director Morgan Bazilian and Steven J. Davis write about how international climate goals imply reaching net-zero global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by roughly mid-century (and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the century). Among the most difficult emissions to avoid will be those from aviation given the industry’s need for energy-dense liquid fuels that lack commercially competitive substitutes and the difficult-to-abate non-CO2 radiative forcing. Here we systematically assess pathways to net-zero emissions aviation.  January 30, 2023.

Decarbonizing the chemical industry: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options 1/23/2023

Decarbonizing the chemical industry: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options

Changwoo Chung, Jinsoo Kim, Benjamin K.Sovacool, Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Minyoung Yang write about how chemicals, essential materials for modern life, emit substantial greenhouse gases during production and use. Like the other carbon-intensive industries, the chemical industry is a complex and diverse industry to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonizing the chemical industry is critical to overcoming the climate crisis and building a sustainable and vibrant future. We conducted a comprehensive and systematic review screening more than 5.6 million articles and thoroughly analyzing a shortlist of 246 studies about the decarbonization innovations of the chemical industry. Based on the review results, we identified the sociotechnical system of the industry into four groups: raw materials, chemical making processes, chemical product making and usage, and waste management and recycling.   January 23, 2023.

Ukraine Power Outages Viewed From the NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite at Night 1/10/2023

Ukraine Power Outages Viewed From the NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite at Night

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Director Christopher Elvidge, Research Associate Tilottama Ghosh and Mikhail Zhizhin, and student researcher Elijah Mt.Castle write about how as the Russia-Ukraine war approaches the 1 year mark the electrical grid in Ukraine has taken devastating damage. Russia has hit more than 200 targets in the electrical infrastructure. This has left millions of Ukrainian citizens without power in the cold winter months. In the early days of the war Russia captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russia has now militarized the facility installing several Grad rocket launchers around the dry storage for spent nuclear fuel. Protective structures were erected to defend the launchers, but these structures violate international nuclear and radiation safety regulations.   January 10, 2023.  

$50M partnership with UT Austin, CSU to tackle oil & gas greenhouse gas emissions accounting. 1/10/2023

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES ALONG WITH UT AUSTIN, CSU TO TACKLE OIL & GAS GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ACCOUNTING IN A $50 MILLION PARTNERSHIP

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling and Fellow Arvind Ravikumar and the Payne Institute has partnered with the University of Texas at Austin and Colorado State University to stand up a new $50 million multidisciplinary research and education initiative that will address the growing need for accurate, timely and clear accounting of greenhouse gas emissions across global oil and natural gas supply chains.  Data and analysis from this major new endeavor will help both public and private institutions develop climate strategies and actions informed by accurate data, identifying both opportunities for emissions reductions and verification. The Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab (EEMDL) will be hosted at UT Austin. January 10, 2023

Comparison of the Gaussian plume and puff atmospheric dispersion models on oil and gas facilities 1/6/2023

Comparison of the Gaussian plume and puff atmospheric dispersion models on oil and gas facilities

Payne Institute Student Researchers Meng Jia and Will Daniels, and Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling write about how characterizing methane emissions on oil and gas facilities often relies on a forward model to describe the atmospheric transport of methane. Here we compare two forward models: the Gaussian plume, a commonly used steady-state dispersion model, and the Gaussian puff, a time varying dispersion model that approximates a continuous release as a sum over many small “puffs”. We compare model predictions to observations from a network of point-in-space continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) collected during a series of controlled releases.  January 6, 2023.

Implementing safety zones for lunar activities under the Artemis Accords 1/4/2023

Implementing safety zones for lunar activities under the Artemis Accords

Payne Institute Fellow Alexander Gilbert writes about how improving technology could enable new commercial and scientific activities in outer space, including crewed stations, space mining, and advanced planetary science in locations like the Moon or asteroids. To facilitate novel space exploration activities, the United States led the development of a new multilateral set of principles, the Artemis Accords.  The Accords and other soft law propose the ability to establish controversial “safety zones” surrounding space operations of participant states and mission-authorized nationals. January 4, 2023.  

Methane emission detection, localization, and quantification using continuous point-sensors on oil and gas facilities 12/27/2022

Methane emission detection, localization, and quantification using continuous point-sensors on oil and gas facilities

Payne Institute Student Researchers William Daniels and Meng Jia, with Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling write about how they propose a generic, modular framework for emission event detection, localization, and quantification on oil and gas facilities that uses concentration data collected by point-in-space continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS). The framework uses a gradient-based spike detection algorithm to estimate emission start and end times (event detection) and pattern matches simulated and observed concentrations to estimate emission source location (localization) and rate (quantification).  Potential uses for the proposed framework include near real-time alerting for rapid emissions mitigation and emission quantification for data-driven inventory estimation on production-like facilities. December 27, 2022.

 

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, viewpoints, or official policies of the Payne Institute or Colorado School of Mines.