...Injustice of ‘‘Clean Coal’’: Expanding the National Conversation on Carbon Capture and Storage Technology to Include an Analysis of Potential Environmental Justice Impacts” I have come to agree with the article that coal will never be clean in a way that is feasible to anyone that has to live near these coal plants. First let’s define clean coal, clean coal as Liebert says is “The term ‘‘clean coal’’ is used to refer to burning coal in a way that reduces emissions or otherwise lessens coal’s environmental impact. ‘‘Clean coal’’ technology includes ‘‘washing’’ coal of minerals and other polluting components, gasification, and the treating of flue gases to lessen sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and mercury emissions. In the context of climate change, the term ‘‘clean coal’’ is used most frequently as shorthand for technology that burns coal more efficiently and or decreases its CO2 emissions. While some might read that and think that we could find a way to get coal without having any CO2 emissions which is not the case. While carbon capture and storage sounds like fantastic technology that has three stages of capture, transport and storage. The technology to get CO2 out of the ground has not even been fully developed to get CO2 of the ground efficiently. There are three different ways to get CO2 but none are considered economical or have the required technology to make it feasible. With pre-combustion capture the CO2 is captured and then converted to gas which can be efficient...
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...Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas (GHG), is the major exhaust gas due to human activities contribution to79% of Canada’s total emission. CO2 is released into the atmosphere by means of burning fossil fuels, coal, and land clearance. As the concentration of CO2 accumulates into the atmosphere, climate change and global warming becomes worse. Canada is the leading country in piloting the carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce the emitted CO2 into the atmosphere by storing the captured CO2 underground, it could reduce GHG by 14-19% before 2050. Shell Ltd. Quest project is the first project to use CCS technology in the Athabasca oil sand projects in Canada. The Post combustion method is being used today at a smaller scale than desired. It is estimated that if post-combustion was to occur at a large industrial scale, it required energy of 25-37% of the total energy, and an estimate of about $3500/kW for the capital cost of an IGCC capture plant installation. Pre-combustion capture has a lower cost in carbon capture and higher capture percentage (90-95%) than the post-combustion capture, but requires more expense on the equipment in order for the process to work. Oxyfuel has the best efficiency (~90%) but requires 15% or more of the overall energy with a capital cost for oxyfuel installation of $1000/kW and a $60/MWh retrofit cost. Geological storage is a favourable method, where the captured CO2 travels to the storage site usually through pipelines...
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...Bill: key measures include establishing a “Stern Report” on resource use, with binding targets and a clear action plan to reduce waste and end biodegradable landfill. 4 A Zero Carbon Britain Bill: key measures include introducing a decarbonisation target for electricity generation, expanding the powers of the Green Investment Bank and banning electricity generated from unabated coal. 5 A Green Transport Bill: key measures include establishing a full network of charging points for electric cars, only allowing low emission vehicles on the roads from 2040 and reforming planning law to ensure new developments are designed around walking, cycling and public transport. Climate change Pass a Zero Carbon Britain Act to set a new legally binding target to bring net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Set a legally binding decarbonisation target range for 2030 for the power sector of 50g-100g of CO2 per kWh, with an indicative target of 60 per cent electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Prepare a national resilience plan to help the UK adapt to the likely impacts of a 3°C to 4°C global average temperature rise. Energy Regulate to end the use of unabated coal in electricity generation by 2025 and require any new gas stations built after 2030 to be fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology. End "ideologically...
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...False Science to Scare Us to Death. Prima Lifestyles. 4. Briggs, H. (2005). Global 'Warming link' to big hurricanes. Available at:http://www.independentmedia.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=11963&fcategory_desc=Global%20Warming%20/%20 Climate%20Change 5. BENCHMARKING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AT AUTOMOBILE ASSEMBLY PLANTS. (2005). Available at http://www.managementfirst.com/quality/articles/automobile.php 6. Carter, A. (2005). Global Warming and Storm Chasing. Available at: http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/ARTICLES/carter.asp 7. Global Warming: A Perspective from Earth History. (N.d.) Available at: http://ebulletin.le.ac.uk/features/2000-2009/2004/12/nparticle-vkt-hgf-t4c 8. French, I. (2004). Carbon Sequestration - Bridging the Gap between Kyoto and a Viable Global Carbon Management Programme? Available at: http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_print.cfm?a_id=633 9. Greens Call New Oil Drilling a Global Warming Risk, (2005). Urge Congressmembers to Do Everything Possible to Thwart ANWR and All New Drilling. http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0322-16.htm 910. Hydrogen cars ready to roll — for a price. (2005). Available at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4563676/ 11. Nesmith, J. (2005). Global warming interferes with Alaska oil drilling. Available at:...
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...Carbon Sequestration and Carbon Sink More than 40 percent of CO2emissions in the US are due to electric power generation. Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and sequestration (CCS) technology could reduce these emissions from power plants by 80 to 90 percent. For example, if CCS technology was applied to a 500 MW coal-fired power plant, emitting 3 million tons of C02 per year, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions avoided is equal to: • Planting more than 62 million trees, and waiting at least 10 years for them to grow • Avoiding annual electricity-related emissions from more than 300,000 homes CCS technology would also significantly reduce emissions from other industrial processes such as gas operations and cement facilities (EPA, 20xx). The world has lost 50 to 70 percent of its original carbon stock. This translates into a huge amount of soil carbon released into the atmosphere. Not long ago, in the 19th century, the US was home to vast tracts of prairie grass with rich, fertile soils. Today only three percent of those prairies are in existence. Current studies on carbon sinks center on soil carbon, how it escaped from the earth and how this process can be reversed. To take the research further, investigators are interested in how this knowledge can be used to slow rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is a known cause global warming. There is hope that carbon can be placed back into the soil in places like the North China Plain, the interior of Australia and the...
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...when occur in gaseous state and present on the atmosphere caused infrared radiation from the sun to be trapped inside earth’s atmosphere, raising its temperature significantly. Global effort to overcome greenhouse gasses threat is not a failure as government across the globe has deployed various technique and policy to reduce such emission. Firstly, development of renewable energy can help to reduce greenhouse emission. Furthermore, there are various technology and method to reduce carbon emission on the atmosphere. Finally, government policy such as carbon tax has been implemented to combat this issue. Firstly, energy generated by alternative means other than fossil fuel has been developed to reduce carbon emission. The term renewable energy can be describes as a power generated from resources that can be replenished indefinitely (Australian Renewable Energy Agency, 2011a, internet). Energy became major part in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to the fact that five sixth of global carbon dioxide deposit originated from energy generation (Victor, 2011, 116). Clean energy such as wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, and solar energy has been implemented in many countries. For instance, China has invested 45.5 billion dollars on clean energy in 2011 and currently at first global position of implementing those energies (Flannery, Beale, & Hueston, 2012, internet). Renewable energy may be able to completely replaced fossil based energy as the development of...
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...Rise of Carbon Pacing global economy and industrialization pressurized world to increase its fossil fuel consumption from 4.9 TW in 1965 to 13.62 TW in 2006. The immense increased in HC based Fuels has resulted in large amount of Carbon Dioxide emission. This Green House gas (GHG) attributed to the environmental warming and resulted in an increase of 0.74 degree for past 100 years. Rising global temperatures will cause sea level to rise and alter local climate conditions, affecting forests, crop yields, and water supplies. It may also affect human health, animals, and many types of ecosystems. Deserts may expand and some of our countryside may be permanently altered. This concern has drawn World attention towards Carbon Management. The last 20 years have witnessed increasing momentum for international environmental policy efforts in order to avoid 'dangerous' anthropogenic climate change. Major achievements in the process so far have been the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol (KP) in 1997, which entered into force in 2005. Carbon Management Carbon management is the control of carbon emissions within the economic, social, and technical and policy constraints through the reductions of carbon sources and the enhancements of carbon sinks. When implemented effectively, CPM techniques can reduce operating costs, realizing gains in brand equity, competitive advantage and stakeholder value. It basically...
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...drinkable water because the groundwater chemistry would change once the CO2 dissolves, therefore these alterations could impact the health of humans and whichever ecosystems it is in contact with. For example, the shallower underground environment could be killed or weakened by elevated CO2 concentrations. Insects and burrowing animals would be negatively affected, and it would also inhibit root respiration by displacing the soil oxygen needed for proper function in plants (Keith & Stephens, n.d., para. 12&13). However, the likelihood of these hazardous leakages happening is anticipated to be relatively small using insight from storage facilities. The performance of natural gas storage in North America anticipates the average leakage rate is less than 0.01% of the actual gas being stored. This can be communicated in an...
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...in whole or in part can be found at: http://www.sciencemag.org/about/permissions.dtl Science (print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published weekly, except the last week in December, by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright c 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved. The title SCIENCE is a registered trademark of AAAS. TOWARD A HYDROGEN ECONOMY SPECIAL SECTION REVIEW Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies S. Pacala1* and R. Socolow2* Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the next...
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...In July it topped a shortlist for a share of as much as €1.5 billion in E.U. funding for innovative low-carbon electricity schemes. But then came a blow. When the British government published its own selection of potential recipients of a slice of £1 billion, or $1.6 billion, in funding in a national competition for carbon capture and storage projects Oct. 30, Don Valley was left off. That means it is not eligible for a share of the E.U. money — equivalent to $2 billion — either. The government is not commenting on why Don Valley lost out, but a key reason appears to be its hefty £5 billion capital cost. Don Valley looked well conceived. The plant would burn coal — normally a huge polluter — but 90 percent of the carbon dioxide would be removed and piped 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, to the North Sea. There the company would inject the gas into two oil fields to assist recovery of oil, helping to offset the expense. But the program cannot go ahead without the support of the British government, the project’s sponsor, 2CO Energy said. Carbon capture and storage could be a boon for the gas and power industry because — if plants could be built economically — it offers a way to use fossil fuels like coal and gas to generate electricity for decades while also meeting greenhouse gas targets. But today, building a gas or coal-fired power station equipped with carbon capture apparatus roughly doubles the cost. That is a big problem now, especially in Europe, which is paring back...
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...intentionally manipulating Earth’s climate to offset the warming from greenhouse gas emissions. Its activities can be divided into two loose groups. One set of options cools Earth by removing carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases from air, essentially reversing the process of fossil fuel emissions. The other cools the planet by blocking or reflecting sunlight, offsetting the consequences of increased greenhouse gases for temperature but leaving the buildup of greenhouse gas concentrations unchecked. Several developments have fueled the rise of geoengineering from fiction to possible reality in a remarkably short period of time. The first is our inability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in any substantive way. A wealth of scientific evidence shows that Earth’s climate is already changing because of such gases, posing a threat to people and other animals and to plants. A second factor is the concern that some planetary engineering may already be needed to reduce the harmful effects of climate change, even if emissions fall in the future. A third is the hope that geoengineering could be cheaper than cutting emissions, even if it treats only a symptom of climate change, not the root cause. The first category of geoengineering removes or “scrubs” CO2 from the atmosphere. Carbon removal...
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...Integrated Gasification Combined-cycle Facility. As Thomas Homer-Dixon describes in his article “Coal in a Nice Shade of Green” it “could allow us to build power plants that produce vast amounts of energy with virtually no carbon dioxide emissions in the air.” (502) The plant itself works by Converting some form of fossil fuel into a gas that is free of pollutants but produces large amounts of both hydrogen and carbon dioxide gas. The solution to containing these large amounts of carbon dioxide according to Dixon would be to pump them into underground chambers created by the excavation of oil and other minerals. Once there the gas could be stored for “millions of years” claims Dixon. (502) The hydrogen produced in this process would go towards fueling a breed of cars powered by this gas and would be the solution to the oil shortages, and the emissions problems that millions of cars on the road create. Even recent studies in Canada have proven that this could be a viable method for creating pollution free energy. So why haven’t we heard more about this miracle solution in mainstream media. The simple answer is that it is not as effective, or clean, of an idea as Dixon would like you to believe. The process Dixon describes is also referred to as Carbon capture and storage and the...
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...2015's critical global climate talks. By leading on a strong emissions reduction target, the UK is persuading others on the need for member states to have the freedom and flexibility to develop their own energy mix to achieve these ambitious reductions. Rigid technology specific targets set for each country would not be cost effective – and EU members should be free to decarbonise in a way that is right for them, including renewables, nuclear, carbon capture and storage and energy efficiency. Energy policy's central conundrum today is how to go green at the lowest possible cost. The commission's analysis confirms that British households pay some of the lowest prices for gas and electricity in Europe, but that is little comfort to people struggling to pay rising energy bills. So we have to achieve a fine balance. We need to invest in home-grown clean energy that will bring cheaper prices in the long run, shielding consumers from volatile international fossil fuel markets. But we also need to take people with us as we transition to a low carbon economy, and that...
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...John Gummer when he served in the cabinet under John Major, took the highly unusual step of writing publicly to the prime minister, David Cameron, warning that the government was in danger of breaching its own commitments on climate change through its strong backing for new gas-fired power stations. In his first public act as the new chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the statutory body set up to advise ministers on how to meet its legal commitments to cut carbon, Lord Deben wrote to "express great concern about the recent government statement [in July] that it sees gas as continuing to play an important role in the energy mix well into and beyond 2030". He pointed out that such an extensive use of gas-fired generation "would be incompatible with meeting legislated carbon budgets [and] unabated gas-fired generation could therefore not form the basis for government policy". Unabated gas means gas power stations that have not been fitted with carbon capture and storage technology to stop the carbon emissions resulted from burning it entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change....
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...The technologies of CO2 capture from coal-derived power generation can be divided into three categories: post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture, and oxy-combustion [7]. Nowadays, proposed methods and concepts for the post-combustion capture of CO2 have included solvent absorption, chemical adsorption (chemisorption), physical adsorption (physisorption), cryogenic distillation, and membrane separation [8,9]. Generally, CO2 adsorption can be used as a final polishing step in a hybrid CO2 capture system [10]. Adsorbents can operate via weak physisorption processes or strong chemisorption interactions [11], which depends on their surface compositions and characteristics. Solid physical adsorbents possess significant advantages for energy efficiency compared with chemical and physical absorption approaches [8]. Many physical adsorbents have been studied, including activated carbons [9,12–18], zeolites [12,19–25], and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) [24–33]. Because CO2 capture by these adsorbents relies mainly on physical adsorption, research activities have been focused on increasing the surface area of these materials in order to achieve enhanced adsorption capacity [34]. Compared with other adsorbents, porous carbonaceous materials are...
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