Calcium looping example, adding Ca-looping to all coal-fired plants in the UK would generate enough waste for 33 Mtonnes/yr of cement production, whereas current cement production in the UK is only 12.5 Mtonnes/yr. Hence, if the technology is applied on a large scale, the purge rate of CaO should be optimized to minimize waste. To fully gauge the viability of calcium looping as a capture process, it is necessary to consider the political, environmental, and health effects of the process as well. Though many recent scientific reports (e.g.: the seven-wedge stabilization plan by Pacala and Socolow) convey an urgent need to deploy
Mitochondrial calcium uniporter Calcium is balanced through the MCU in conjunction with the sodium-calcium exchanger. The MCU has a very low affinity for calcium, so the cytosolic calcium concentration needs to be approximately 5-10 uM for significant transport of calcium into the mitochondria. Mitochondria are closely associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), at contact sites, which contains stores of cellular calcium ions for calcium signaling. The presence of 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP) triggers the release of calcium from these intracellular stores, which creates microdomains of high calcium concentration between the ER and the mitochondria, creating the conditions for the MCU to take up calcium. Ruthenium