Engineering, Environment, and Ingenuity

The United Nations has 17 Sustainable Development Goals that are not yet met. An important one is number 15, Life on Land. Due to human activities, forests are shrinking, deserts are expanding, biodiversity is diminishing, and there are frequent zoonotic outbreaks, which are diseases transmitted from animals to humans. Luckily, engineers are solving these problems with new technologies, such as seed drones, carbon capture technologies, green hydrogen production, and self-spreading vaccines.

To help reverse deforestation, engineers designed seed drones, which fire “rapidly germinating seeds” into the ground. Flash Forest, a Toronto based organization, uses this technology by working with its partners worldwide, including NGOs. They also use mycorrhizae, fertilizers, and proprietary ingredients beneficial to plants to create gels which further promote tree growth. This is 80 percent cheaper than traditional planting methods. Other specialized drones, such as spraying drones, or drones that monitor the growth progress, are also deployed. Though these drones have greatly improved the problems, we are still far from reaching our goal.

Other engineers found ways to combat climate change, which is the Holy Grail of Life on Land. One way to slow down, or even reverse climate change is to pull CO2 out of the air. Researchers from the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Center (CCUS Center) at MIT have developed multiple technologies to absorb CO2. An innovative technique called electrochemical CO2 fixation can change CO2 into fuels, commodity chemicals, and critical materials. In addition, CCUS developed thermochemical CO2 fixation, which uses advanced catalysts that combine CO2 and renewable-derived hydrogen to generate diverse chemical intermediates and fuel precursors. CCUS engineers are also working on CO2 storage technologies with basaltic reservoirs to meet the UN’s milestone. CO2 gas is dissolved in reservoir water and then reacts with the basaltic rocks to form carbonate materials. These rocks are a great place to store CO2, because the CO2 becomes part of an “inert solid,” and it is permanently sequestered. It is not enough to only capture CO2 from the atmosphere; we also have to reduce emissions.

Members of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) are investigating a new method of producing hydrogen fuel and ammonia without releasing CO2. The project explores a new idea of methane pyrolysis. Methane is heated and breaks down into hydrogen and solid carbon instead of greenhouse gasses. The carbon can deposit on the walls of the reactor and plug it up. To prevent this, the reaction is aided by inert molten tin to mitigate the problem of plugging. With climate change addressed, we can now move on to the next issue.

Zoonoses are caused by many factors, like human activities, deforestation, climate change, and desertification. Seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, according to the UN. These zoonotic diseases are closely associated with the health and robustness of ecosystems. While zoonoses can be prevented by protecting the environment, we can tackle the problem of zoonoses proactively. A new developing type of vaccine is “self-disseminating” (Nature Ecology & Evolution). This allows the vaccine effects to transfer from one animal to another. For example, in 2001, Spanish researchers tested a vaccine on a wild rabbit population on a small island in Spain. The vaccine spread to more than half of the 300 rabbits living there. These vaccines can be transmissible or transferable. Transmissible vaccines can transmit indefinitely while transferable vaccines are one-time use. Both these vaccines reduce vaccination efforts, which make it possible to provide a low risk strategy to prevent a zoonotic outbreak or epidemic.

To summarize, the UN's sustainable goal of Life on Land can be reached through creative engineering. Ingenious technologies have been invented to slow deforestation, desertification, biodiversity loss, and the spread of diseases. From seed drones to self-disseminating vaccines, there are a wide variety of technologies being researched or deployed today. These technologies will be crucial to save our beautiful blue planet and humanity itself.

Bibliography

United Nations. (n.d.). Forests, desertification and Biodiversity - United Nations Sustainable Development. United Nations. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/biodiversity/

Ozdemir, D. (2021, June 18). These drones will plant 1 billion trees in just 8 years. Interesting Engineering. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://interestingengineering.com/these-drones-will-plant-1-billion-trees-in-just-8-years

About. About | Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://energy.mit.edu/ccus/about/

Dahl, E. (2020, July 17). Two research projects receive funding to advance technologies that avoid carbon emissions. Main. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://energy.mit.edu/news/two-research-projects-receive-funding-to-advance-technologies-that-avoid-carbon-emissions/

Nuismer, S. L., & Bull, J. J. (2020, July 27). Self-disseminating vaccines to suppress zoonoses. Nature News. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1254-y

Flash Forest. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://flashforest.ca/

Lentzos, F., & Reeves, G. (2020, September 18). Scientists are working on vaccines that spread like a disease. what could possibly go wrong? Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://thebulletin.org/2020/09/scientists-are-working-on-vaccines-that-spread-like-a-disease-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/