Today marks the 1st day of our 7-day series on celebrating International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, and our topic is: What is Black Carbon? Black carbon (BC) is generally known as soot. However, scientifically, BC is the largest composition of soot, so there is a distinction. BC is made up of elementary carbon (EC). BC is part of the particulate matter (PM2.5 & PM1) category, which means it has a thickness of less than 2.5 microns (and less than 1 micron for stricter and unconventional measurement) – a hair is 50-70 microns thick on average. Although BC is one of the short-living, light-absorbing climate pollutants maintaining in the atmosphere for 4-12 days, it has a heat-releasing property of 1500X than carbon dioxide (CO2). You may wonder where all these BCs come from, and it is actually commonly found in our daily activities. Incompletion of fossil fuel combustion in vehicles and electricity generation, solid fuel cooking and biomass burning are all perpetrators of the largest contributors in BC emission. Did you know? 🔎 There is a new and increasing trend of BC pollution from rocket launches with kerosene (Rocket Propellant-1, or RP-1) as fuel. As space tourism matures, Eloise Marais, an associate professor in physical geography at University College London, has predicted with her team that BC emissions will “more than double after just an additional three years of space tourism launches, and that particles emitted by rockets are almost 500 times more efficient at holding heat in the atmosphere than all other sources of soot combined, resulting in an enhanced warming climate effect.” This is because not only BC is emitted into the troposphere and lower stratosphere, but also the mesosphere, which will reverse the mending of the ozone layer. On the bright side, some rocket startups are experimenting with renewable biofuels which have a lower carbon footprint. Now you have learnt about what black carbon is, we will explore its impacts on the Earth and humans tomorrow. Stay tuned and please follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram! #Sootable #WorldCleanAirDay #AirPollution #AirPollutionAwareness #ClimateAction #ClimateChange #GreenEnergy #GreenTech #SDGs #Sustainability #SustainableDevelopment #Ecopreneur #HKEntrepreneur #HKSDGHub #HKUST References: Climate and Clean Air Coalition. (n.d.). Black Carbon. Black carbon | Climate & Clean Air Coalition. https://lnkd.in/gtPVKxxX Energy Education. (n.d.). Soot. Soot - Energy Education. https://lnkd.in/guS3edva Piesing, M. (2022, July 15). The pollution caused by rocket launches. BBC Future. https://lnkd.in/g9qFg6Yw Sasser, E., & Hemby, J. (2012). (rep.). Report to Congress on Black Carbon. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from https://lnkd.in/gQMvqxSw
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