The reflecivity gain reported in *Royal Society of Chemistry Advances* is quite phenomenal-- about 10 times the albedo of still water, and the bubble lifetime is two orders of magnitude greater than the longest-lived marine microbubbles Johnson and Cooke noted in their 1981* Science *paper
On Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 9:27:55 PM UTC-4, andrewjlockley wrote: > > Poster's note : interesting concept, but major questions remain regarding > wave action, biodegradation, and the effect on marine life. > > http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/ra/c4ra08714c > > Long-term stabilization of reflective foams in sea water > > Alex Aziz, Helen C. Hailes, John M. Ward and Julian R. G. Evans > RSC Adv., 2014,4, 53028-53036 > DOI: 10.1039/C4RA08714C > > Abstract > > This work explores the challenge of making persistent foams in salt water > to provide high reflectance. While stable foam is essential in the food > industry and in fire fighting, this is the first work aimed at combining > foam persistence with reflectance. One application is the use of oceanic > foams to increase planetary albedo: extending foam lifetime moderates the > energy required to maintain large areas of ‘ocean mirror’. Two compositions > to produce such foams in seawater are described. The first is based on high > methyl ester pectin-type A gelatin complexes which produced foams with a > reflectance of 0.5. The second produces stable foams using cellulose ethers > and iota carrageenan gelling agents. These foams gelled in the presence of > sea water to give measured reflectance of 0.65–0.75. Both had lifetimes, > without wave action, beyond three months at which point the experiment > ended. In contrast, single protein species such as gelatin B, whey protein > isolate and albumin produced short-lived foams. Foam stability was measured > by recording liquid drainage and foam height as a function of time. In the > event that climate interventions are needed, such additives would be > appropriate for nutrient-deficient ocean regions that support low levels of > marine life. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
