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K-State Today

March 9, 2016

Reducing greenhouse gases topic of K-State Climate Change Group

Submitted by John Ruberson

The K-State Climate Change group invites the university community to a meeting at 10 a.m. Friday, March 11, in Room 207 of the K-State Student Union. The meeting will include presentations by Larry Erickson, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Center for Hazardous Substance Research; and Matthew Kirk, assistant professor in the geology department. Their presentations will focus on approaches to reducing and capturing greenhouse gases.

Erickson's presentation will include methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He will discuss ideas to move toward the generation of electricity with renewable energy and the electrification of transportation, which is outlined in the upcoming book "Solar Powered Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles: A Sustainable Development," on which Erickson is the senior author.

Kirk will introduce two areas of geoscience research that seek to reduce greenhouse gas levels: geological carbon storage and enhanced weathering. Geological carbon storage involves the capture and storage of carbon dioxide in the deep subsurface in order to reduce emission of carbon dioxide during fossil fuel combustion. Enhanced weathering is a geoengineering strategy that uses the chemical weathering of minerals to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.