Greenhouse emissions growing - World not doing enough

Climate change still remains one of the most pressing environmental and social issues and world leaders are yet to do anything meaningful about it. It's sadly all talk and very little action as the latest climate change talks in Warsaw, Poland showed. The disappointing climate conference in Warsaw, Poland ended without laying the groundwork for a global climate agreement in 2015, which was something that was hoped from many environmentalists and scientists from all over the world.

And in the meantime there is the continued growth in emissions of greenhouse gases. Both negotiators and activists confront not only the fact that carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions reached the highest annual total to date, but also a shifting geographic distribution of emissions. The logical conclusion of this would be that the international community should take rapid and decisive action but sadly we do not live in a logical world.

The latest data by the Global Carbon Project shows that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production reached staggering 9.7 gig tons of carbon (GtC) in 2012, with a ±5 percent uncertainty range, and with the currently expected growth they will likely 9.9 GtC in 2013. In comparison, the 2012 value is 58 percent higher than emissions in 1990, the year often used as a benchmark for measuring the increases in emissions.

Coal (attributing with 43 percent) and oil (attributing with 33 percent) accounted for the majority of these emissions, with natural gas (18 percent), cement production (5 percent), and flaring (1 percent) making up the remainder of the total percentage. The good news in the whole story is that both the U.S. government as well as World Bank is making efforts to limit international financing for new coal projects signal a desire to shift away from this particularly carbon-intensive resource and switch to other, cleaner energy sources.

Regardless of these efforts coal still remains a major culprit behind the increase in CO₂ emissions, accounting for 54 percent of the emissions increase in 2012. Coal use is rising in countries currently undergoing energy sector transitions. Coal-related emissions increased in not only developing countries but also in countries such as Germany (4.2 percent) and Japan (5.6 percent)-both of which are phasing out nuclear power plants. Oil, gas, and cement accounted for 18 percent, 21 percent, and 6 percent of the global increase in 2012 respectively.

Although CO₂ is the primary greenhouse gas emitted mostly through human activities, it is not the only one with negative effects on global warming and climate change. There are bunch of other greenhouse gases that cannot be ignored. They include methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The total contribution of each of these gases to climate change depends on such factors as the length of time it remains in the atmosphere, how strongly it absorbs energy, and its atmospheric concentration.

Fossil fuel burning when coupled with deforestation and land use change, has pushed the total atmospheric concentration of CO₂ to approximately 393.9 parts per million (ppm) in 2012, an increase of more than 40 percent since 1750 and of 24 percent since the Scripps Institution of Oceanography began keeping detailed records in 1959.

There seems to be a global scientific consensus that the CO₂ concentration will need to be reduced to at least 350 ppm if we hope to maintain a climate similar to that which has supported human civilization to date and avoid worst possible climate change scenario. Atmospheric CO₂ concentration increased by 2.2 ppm in 2012 alone, exceeding the average annual increase over the past 10 years. The bad news is also that the Scripps Institution's measurements indicate an average of 396.2 ppm for the period of January to September 2013, implying an even greater increase this year, and further negative impact on global warming and climate change.

Although the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed in 2010 that the increase in average global temperature since the pre-industrial period must be kept below 2 degrees Celsius, many scientific projections now put the climate on track for warming that is significantly higher than this set mark. For instance, the Global Carbon Project predicts a likely increase in temperature of 3.2-5.4 degrees Celsius while World Bank in its latest report projects an approximate 20 percent likelihood that our planet will get warmer by about 4 degrees Celsius by 2100 if world continues business as usual scenario and fails to mitigate the increase in carbon emissions.

Emissions data also highlight the shifting geographical and historical complexity that makes international negotiations so contentious. The global distribution of emissions in 2012 is very different than it was in 1990, when the Kyoto Protocol was established as the first meaningful global agreement aimed to reduce carbon emissions. In 1990,  industrial countries accounted for 62 percent of emissions; by 2012, that figure had dropped to 37 percent, reflecting rapid industrialization and development in emerging economies such as china and India and shifting patterns in production and consumption.

And despite the fact that the international climate negotiations have focused traditionally on the role and responsibility of nation states new analyses also points to the significant role of different corporations in emitting greenhouse gases. Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute said in Warsaw that the investor-owned corporations have been responsible for 21.7 percent of CO₂ and CH₄ fossil fuel and cement emissions since 1750, with state-owned corporations responsible for an additional 19.8 percent.

The next stop for climate negotiators, experts, and activists after the Warsaw is Paris in 2015, where there will be yet another hope on forging a global deal to tackle climate change and global warming.

Interesting global greenhouse gas emissions facts from latest reports:

• It has been reported that the methane is now the third most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, after CO₂ and water vapor, on a per molecule basis. Although atmospheric methane levels declined during 1983-99 and remained relatively constant during 1999-2006, they have been increasing since 2007. Methane is 21 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
• China is currently the world's largest CO₂ emitter and its emissions increased by 5.9 percent in 2012, an increase that accounted for 71 percent of that year's global increase. Another major emitter such as United States and Australia, although both still major emitters, experienced reductions of 0.05 percent and 11.6 percent respectively.
• In 2012, the top four emitters of CO₂ on global level were China (2,626 million tons of carbon, or MtC), the United States (1,397 MtC), India (611 MtC), and the Russian Federation (492 MtC). 

Coal and gas usage continues to grow on global level

The oil is still the world's most important energy source but the use of coal and natural gas continues to grow in significance, according to new study conducted by the Worldwatch Institute. According to recent numbers the global usage of coal increased 5.4 percent in 2011, to 3.72 billion tons of oil equivalent, while natural gas use grew 2.2 percent, to 2.91 billion tons of oil equivalent.

Both coal and natural gas remain primary sources for electricity generation worldwide and they are also often used as substitutes for one other, meaning that in order to get more precise numbers their trends need to be examined together. The large part of total coal consumption is used for electricity generation, with smaller amounts being used in steelmaking industry. The global coal consumption primarily grew because of rising demand in China and India. 

The coal share in the global primary energy consumption was 28 percent in 2011 which represents the highest percentage since the International Energy Agency began keeping statistics in 1971.

China, the fast rising economic giant, alone accounted for nearly half of all coal usage in 2011. India is the second largest contributor to rising coal demand and is the world's third largest coal consumer, after surpassing the European Union in 2009. The United States remains the second largest coal consumer, though it has to be said that U.S. demand decreased by around 5 percent in 2011 and its decline continued in 2012, particularly because of the shale gas popularity and the abundance of cheap natural gas.

Coal production, as well as consumption, is concentrated mainly in China because coal still remains the main fuel behind the China's rapid economic growth.  The United States however still holds the largest proved coal reserves in the world, with 28 percent of the global total, followed by Russia at 18 percent, and China at 13 percent.

Global consumption of natural gas grew at a slower rate than coal - 2.2 percent - to reach 2.91 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2011. Natural gas consumption grew in all regions except in the European Union, which experienced a 9.9 percent decline in natural gas consumption, mostly because of the struggling economy and high natural gas prices.

Natural gas accounted for nearly 23.7 percent of global primary energy consumption in 2011, experiencing a very slight decline from 23.8 percent in 2010. The natural gas consumption increased most significantly in East Asia, primarily in China (21.5 percent) and Japan (11.6 percent).

Natural gas production increased at a higher rate than consumption, by 3.1 percent, reaching 2.96 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2011. The United States and Russia are largest natural gas producers in the world, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the world's output in 2011.

Whether the strong growth in the global coal and natural gas sectors will continue depends on several different factors. Demand for coal would likely decline with the introduction of new technologies in the power sector, or with the adoption of clean energy policies aimed to reduce the environmental and health impacts of coal combustion. Also, the increasing global concern about greenhouse gas emissions and climate change would likely lead to a greater transition from coal to natural gas. In relation to natural gas there have been environmental and other concerns about hydraulic fracturing as well as the possibility that cheap shale gas might prevent the further development of renewable energy sector.

Carbon capture and storage can lead to less CO2 emissions

Burning fossil fuels releases large quantities of carbon dioxide, a harmful greenhouse gas which is held mostly responsible for climate change and global warming. This is the main reason why fossil fuels are labeled as the "dirty fuels", and why so many people around the globe want to see them being replaced with renewable energy source such as solar and wind energy. Fossil fuels are oil, carbon and natural gas.

However, there is still a significant number of energy experts who believe in carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) as the key technology in reducing the amount of carbon emissions from fossil fuel fired power plants, and thus making fossil fuels usage less damaging to our environment. In the ideal scenario, carbon capture and storage technology would even lead to CO2-free power plants, though this scenario is still far from reality.

Carbone capture technology sounds excellent in theory but scientists have plenty of work ahead of them in order to find solutions that would make this technology efficient and commercially viable. Greatly increased operational costs have been the most frequent result of currently tested CCS solutions, and this is something that science will need to improve in years to come before this technology can be implemented on global scale.

Scientists are currently researching several different CCS technologies, and currently most intriguing CCS project is the pilot fossil fuel plant at the TU Darmstadt's Institute for Energy Systems and Technology that is being utilized for investigating two brand new methods for CO2 capture. If successful these new CCS methods will allow nearly totally eliminating CO2 emissions and require virtually no additional energy input and entail only slight increases in operating costs. Both of these methods employ natural substances and reduce the energy presently required for CO2 capture by more than half.

The first method is called "carbonate looping" method, and the working principle of this method is based on utilizing the naturally occurring limestone to initially bind CO2 from the stream of flue gases transiting power plants' stacks in a first-stage reactor. The resultant pure CO2 gets reliberated in a second reactor and can then be stored. The main advantage of the carbonate-looping method is that even existing power plants can be retrofitted with this new method.

The other method is called "chemical looping" method. This method should allow capturing CO2 with hardly any loss of energy efficiency. Under this method, a dual-stage, flameless, combustion yields a stream of exhaust gases containing only CO2 and water vapor. The CO2 can then be captured and stored.

The pilot plant has already demonstrated its ability to bind CO2 in conjunction with initial trial runs. The further investigation of these two methods should be done over the next couple of years.

US coal facts

Currently, 26 US states produce coal, and the largest coal producing state is Wyoming.

Coal is currently the most abundant fossil fuel in United States, and if US continues to use coal in the future at the same rate as today, it should have enough coal for the next 300 years.

Coal is more cost effective compared to oil and natural gas, in average 3,5 times more cheaper than oil and natural gas.

More than 90% of US coal is used to generate electricity.

24.8% of world's coal reserves are found within the United States.

Coal currently accounts for around 45% of US electricity production.

In 2009, US total primary coal production was 1,072,752 thousand short tons. The total coal consumption in the same year was 1,000,424 thousand short tons.

In 2009 United States imported 22,639 thousand short tons of coal, significantly less than 34,208 in 2008, mostly due to the financial crisis.

In 2009, US exported 59,097 thousand short tons of coal.

In 2009, the total US CO2 emissions resulted from the consumption of the coal were 2,125.168 million metric tons.

In the last 40 years, coal production in United States has increased by 71%.

In the United States, the most efficient coal power plants achieve efficiency of around 40 percent. The typical efficiency for coal power plant is 34,3%.

Coal power plants have operation and maintenance costs at approximately 0.75 cents per kilowatt hour, and a total fuel and operating costs averaging at 2.83 cents per kilowatt hour.

US currently has over 600 coal power plants.

Coal power plants are losing popularity in United States because coal is labeled as the dirtiest fuel, mostly responsible for climate change issue; this is the main reason why more than 90% of new power plants that will be built in the United States will likely be fueled by natural gas, which is a less polluting fossil fuel compared to coal.

Why does Russia want more coal?

Coal is fossil fuel that is highly polluting our environment, and worldwide burning of the coal in coal power plants is one of the main reasons why we are currently engaged in fight against climate change. Despite the highly negative environmental impact many countries heavily rely on coal to fuel their economies since in most cases coal presents the cheapest energy option. China, the world's fastest economy has built its economic success on coal.

Though coal can bring economic success on one side it can also bring total environmental failure on the other side, and is really no surprise that many environmentalists have been worried about the latest Russia's plans to substantially increase energy production from coal as this will mean even more carbon emissions in the atmosphere, and with it the bigger climate change impact.

Why would Russia, the well known oil and natural gas giant also turn to coal to increase its energy production? There are several reasons for this. First of all Russia has enormous coal reserves, second only to United States, coal is as already said cheap energy option, and third increased coal use could help Russia to easier fulfill its gas export contracts.

Many energy experts do not see this move to be very wise, not only from environmental point of view but also from economic point of view since Russian coal is of poor quality because of high sulfur and moisture content. United Kingdom for instance displaced Russian coal with Australian and South African coal that both have significantly better quality than Russian coal.


But other energy experts will tell you that even if Russian coal is of poor quality, the Russia can still profit on shale gas (natural gas produced from shale). Shale gas technologies still need to be fully developed but they would enable countries that have enough coal, and not enough natural gas to produce shale gas at coal basins. Since Russia, as already said has abundance of coal of poor quality, extracting shale gas out of the coal basins would really be the case of getting the most out of it, especially as current estimates say that shale gas development should rise by more than 70% in the next 20 years.

Russia is filled with fossil fuel riches, and this is probably the main reason why Russia isn't doing much to use more renewable energy sources to supply its energy demand. The global clean energy race is on, and Russia still looks to be hesitating to join in. Fossil fuel riches are more than capable to provide Russia a relative energy comfort on global market at present times but Russia should also think about its energetic future, not to mention the fact that there will be huge economic benefits for winners in clean energy race.

Coal – Introduction and some quick facts

Introduction to coal

Coal is classified as fossil fuel, and it is the main energy source for electricity production in the world. This however also means that coal is the main source of carbon emissions in the world meaning that coal significantly contributes to climate change issue. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, mostly sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

Coal has a long history of use, and its use started somewhere during the Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC). Fast developing economies like China and India owe their economic success to coal, mostly because coal is still the cheapest energy option, and is widely available in many countries across the globe. Coal is extracted from the ground by mining, either underground or in open pits.

The total known coal deposits recoverable by current technologies should last for more than 100 years. On the other hand coal consumption is constantly increasing and some energy experts even believe that maximal coal production could be reached within the decades.


Coal – World's leading fuel to generate electricity

As said in introduction coal is the main source of electricity in the world. So we could say that this is its primary use. If we look at the actual numbers we can see that world coal consumption was about 6,743,786,000 short tons in 2006, and this number is expected to increase 48% to 9.98 billion short tons by 2030, even despite the ongoing climate change issue. Many people connect coal mostly to China but United States is also very dependent on coal, and United States consumes about 14% of the world total, using 90% of it for generation of electricity. Coal generates around 54% of US total electricity.

How is coal used for electricity generation? The most common process to generate electricity from coal includes pulverization and combustion in a furnace with a boiler. To simplify the things the much as possible the furnace heat converts boiler water to steam, which is then used to spin turbines, and turbines turn generators to create electricity. Efficiency of this process has been improved over the time, and the best way to increase efficiency is to increase the combustion temperature. Coal looks likely to remain the world's leading fuel to generate electricity for many years, and today about 40% of the world's electricity comes from coal, and approximately 49% of the United States electricity comes from coal.

Coal power plant.

Coal – Environmental impact

Many environmentalists will agree that burning coal is the most polluting method for producing electricity, and is causing huge environmental damage. The worst thing that happens in this process is of course the production of greenhouse gases (mostly carbon dioxide emissions) by burning coal, but carbon emissions are not the only negative thing in this process as there are also many other harmful compounds released during coal burning. It also has to be said environmental problems connected with coal are not only limited to the burning process. The extraction of coal, its transportation, storage and disposal of all create additional environmental issues.

The total amount of pollution caused by burning coal depends on the type of technology that is used for burning. New coal-fired power plant technologies are emerging with the ability to reduce the amount of carbon emissions and other harmful compounds released during the burning process. Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) combustion is the best example of this new technology and some experts say this significantly reduces harmful carbon emissions. Despite certain reductions in carbon emissions from the use of IGCC technology, coal fired power plants will still have very negative impact on environment. A typical (500 megawatt) coal plant burns 1.4 million tons of coal each year. If we look at the United States alone we can see that there are about 600 coal power plants in US.

Carbon emissions are one problem connected with coal burning and air pollution is another. Air pollution is a major cause of environmental degradation, and there are also sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides being released into the atmosphere causing acid rain and lung problems in humans and animals. Together with these harmful particles there are also some amounts of mercury, arsenic and lead, all of which can have serious health impact on living organisms.

And there is also the problem with the waste. The waste created from the coal burning is also very harmful to our environment. The sludge from smoke stack scrubbers is toxic, containing a number of heavy metals that can potentially contaminate the environment. Large quantities of coal waste are stored on site at the power plant, and thus it can easily enter the water supply of the surrounding area, contaminating it. When we talked about the water then I should also point out that the water used to cool the coal power plants is often sourced from a local water body and then simply pumped back after it has been used. This hot water, often containing chlorine or other chemicals, can result algal blooms and some other environmental problems.

The extraction and transportation of coal to a power plant is also connected with the number of different environmental issues. Since coal is predominantly mined from near the surface, this often causes damage to nearby ecosystems as many of the ecosystems above are degraded or sometimes even completely removed. Coal is usually transported by diesel trains over great distances, meaning that there's an extra releasing of carbon dioxide and other harmful particles. And there is also coal dust that once produced contributes to particulate matter in the air (air pollution).

Scientists: We are destroying earth.

Government: Could you kindly rephrase that in equivocal, inaccurate, vague, self-serving and roundabout terms that we can all understand.

Clean coal technologies

Since coal is connected with large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions it is no surprise that science and technology are on the lookout for new clean coal technologies, which would be burning coal without adding significantly to global carbon dioxide levels. Today, burning coal produces about 9 billion tones of carbon dioxide each year which is released to the atmosphere, and many energy experts hope that some new clean coal technology will successfully address this issue. The most promising of clean coal technologies look to be carbon capture and storage technology though it has to be said that this technology hasn't yet been optimized for the scale required in coal-burning power plants, and no commercial-scale power plants are operating with this process yet. But perhaps FutureGen project will change that.

US Department of energy has recently announced the $1.3 billion FutureGen project to design, build and operate an almost emission-free coal-based electricity and hydrogen production plant. The FutureGen initiative would have comprised a coal gasification plant with additional water-shift reactor, and this would produce both hydrogen and carbon dioxide. FutureGen project would also involve development of the ITM oxygen separation technology. According to the calculations around 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year would then be separated by membrane technology and sequestered geologically. The hydrogen would have been be burned in a 275 MWe generating plant and in fuel cells. Construction of FutureGen was due to start in 2009, for operation in 2012, with target of 90% carbon capture. The project was designed to validate the technical feasibility and economic viability of near-zero emission coal-based generation.

Coal Reserves

China is currently the world's largest coal producer, followed by United States and India. At the end of 2006 the recoverable coal reserves amounted to around 800 or 900 gigatons. If we were to look at the current rates of extraction and use this should last fro around 132 years.

British Petroleum, in its 2007 report, estimated at 2006 end, there were 909,064 million tons of proven coal reserves worldwide, or 147 years reserves-to-production ratio. This number however only includes reserves classified as "proven", and in many cases, companies are aware of coal deposits that have not been sufficiently drilled to qualify as "proven".

According to the BP's Statistical Review of World Energy in 2009 global proven coal reserves are at the highest levels of all time. Global reserves of coal were at 826,001 million tons at the end of 2009. This is 119 years of production at 2009 production levels and the United States has the largest share (28 percent) of these coal reserves.

If we compare coal with other fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) we can see that coal has the most widely distributed reserves; coal is mined in over 100 countries, and on all continents except Antarctica. The largest reserves are found in the USA, Russia, Australia, China, India and South Africa

Conclusion

Despite obviously having very bad negative impact coal still remains the mostly used energy source in the world. This is because coal is the cheapest energy option for many countries in the world, and the economy still outweighs ecology when it comes to energy.

Coal looks very likely to remain dominant energy source for at least next few decades, despite significantly contributing to climate change and air pollution. The only hope are clean coal technologies (especially carbon capture and storage technology) but these technologies despite looking promising still seem to be many years away before being implemented on global scale, and in the meantime coal production is in the constant rise, especially in the new fast developing economies such as China and India.

If climate change issue gets out of hand then coal could be easily regarded as the major culprit for this.

Fossil fuels facts

Fossil fuels are formed by the anaerobic decomposition of remains of organisms including phytoplankton and zooplankton that settled to the sea (or lake) bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions, millions of years ago.

Fossil fuels are oil, coal and natural gas. In 2006 primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.8%, coal 26.6%, and natural gas 22.9%, amounting to an 86% share for fossil fuels in primary energy production in the world.

Crude oil is a smelly, yellow-to-black liquid and is usually found in underground areas called reservoirs. Scientists and engineers explore a chosen area by studying rock samples from the earth. Measurements are taken, and, if the site seems promising, drilling begins.

Coal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds.

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills.

Fossil fuels - current US energy picture.

Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form, and reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being formed.

All fossil fuels are made of hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons store energy in the form of the atomic bonds. Energy stored in hydrocarbons can be released very easy - we just have to burn them.

When fossil fuels are burned carbon and hydrogen react with oxygen in air to carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂O). During this reaction heat is released which further amplifies the reaction.

One of the biggest benefits of fossil fuels is their cost. Coal, oil and natural gas are abundant right now and relatively inexpensive to drill or mine for.

At current usage, the coal supply will last 1500 years. However at a 5% growth rate the coal supply will last only 86 years. We can expect even greater usage as other fossil fuels become scarce.

Coal energy yield depends on how much carbon is contained in it. Two types dominate US reserves. Anthracite is 95% carbon and is approximately 300 million years old. Lignite is 25% carbon is nearly 150 million years old.

An oil refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas.

To run a 100-watt light bulb 24 hours a day for a year we need to use about 714 pounds (325 kg) of coal in coal powered power plant (thermal efficiency of such power plant is typically abut 40%).

Fossil fuels are also overwhelmingly responsible for fueling our transportation system. Petroleum-based fuels are the standard.

One liter of regular gasoline is the time-rendered result of about 23.5 tonnes of ancient organic material deposited on the ocean floor.

The total fossil fuel used in the year 1997 is the result of 422 years of all plant matter that grew on the entire surface and in all the oceans of the ancient earth.

Burning fossil fuels is responsible for environmental issues that are high on the political agenda these days. Examples are greenhouse gas accumulation, acidification, air pollution, water pollution, damage to land surface and ground-level ozone.

Consequence of oil spills. Fossil fuels cause direct and indirect pollution.

CO2 can be turned into methanol

CO₂ is the biggest reason why world today faces very difficult challenge in overcoming the climate change problem caused mostly by excessive CO₂ emissions. These excessive emissions are mostly the result of fossil fuels burning because world needs energy, and energy demands keeps on growing all the time, so fossil fuels are really a necessary evil we need to satisfy our everyday needs.

Carbon dioxide, result of fossil fuels burning is hot topic around the globe, and is described by many as No.1 cause for climate change problem. Scientist believe that we should reduce our CO₂ emissions as much as possible to keep current levels of CO₂ in atmosphere and avoid the worst possible global warming scenario. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that a 60% reduction of global carbon dioxide emissions is needed if carbon dioxide concentrations are to stabilize at present-day levels. But with renewable energy sector still miles away from being competitive on global scale this is very unrealistically to expect, so therefore science is looking for new solutions - like for instance turning CO₂ into methanol or some other useful chemical compound. You think this is impossible? Not anymore, just ask the scientists at at the Singapore-based Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN).

Carbon dioxide into methanol - principle.

These scientific visionaries have made an unprecedented breakthrough in transforming carbon dioxide, a most common greenhouse gas, into methanol, a widely used form of industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel. Their secret is in using so called "organocatalysts", organocatalysts were used by researchers to activatee carbon dioxide in a mild and non-toxic process to produce the more useful chemical compound. This really has the potential to be one of the most important discoveries in the energy world.

At the Singapore-based Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, scientists have managed to make carbon dioxide react with a stable organocatalyst called N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) under mild conditions in dry air. As senior lab officer at IBN Siti Nurhanna Riduan said: “NHCs have shown tremendous potential for activating and fixing carbon dioxide and our work can contribute towards transforming excess carbon dioxide in the environment into useful products, such as methanol.”

To do this, scientists require a combination of silica and hydrogen – called hydrosilane – hydrosilane is then added to the NHC-activated carbon dioxide, which is transformed into methanol through the process of hydrolysis. Dr Yugen Zhang, IBN team leader and principal research scientist explained the role of hydrosilane by saying:"Hydrosilane provides hydrogen, which bonds with carbon dioxide in a reduction reaction. This carbon dioxide reduction is efficiently catalyzed by NHCs even at room temperature. Methanol can be easily obtained from the product of the carbon dioxide reaction." He also added that their previous research on NHCs has demonstrated their multiple applications as powerful antioxidants to fight degenerative diseases, and as effective catalysts to transform sugars into an alternative energy source. With this discovery they have shown that NHCs can also be applied successfully to the conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol, helping to unleash the potential of this highly abundant gas.

Similar scientific research have become very important because world seeks all available solutions to fight against global warming and climate change. It has to be said here that primary goal of IBN's research was to make the mass production of methanol more cost-effective, in the process reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released in the earth's atmosphere. As you can see there is double benefit from this scientific discovery: less CO₂ in the atmosphere and real possibility of mass methanol production.

Hopefully there will be more similar scientific discoveries in years to come because only science can save us from global warming. I mean you don't really expect politics to solve this problem, do you?

Germany to have coal power plants with the least CO2 emissions?

Coal power plants are among the most significant source of CO₂ emissions, and mostly responsible for global warming and climate change. Coal is often described as the dirtiest energy source, and if world wants to tackle global warming and climate change coal related emissions would have to be significantly reduced. Though many agree that world should stop relying so much on coal this won't be so easy to do because coal is among the cheapest energy sources, and many developing countries (China, India) have based their industries and economies almost entirely on coal. Therefore it is very unlikely that world will say goodbye to coal power plants, the most likely solution is that world will look to improve efficiency of current power plants, mostly by using carbon capture and storage technology. Germany's example should give us few starting points.

Germany's coal importers association VDIK recently announced how Germany's coal plants will emit a total of just 21mn t CO₂ per year in 2050, thereby becoming the nation with the least CO₂ emissions resulting from coal power plants.

Germany's coal fired power plants intend to reduce their CO₂ emissions from a total 115mn t in 2008-09, to just 21mn t in 2050 — which is an incredible 81 percent cut — according to a thoroughly described VDIK study presented to public. Such significant CO₂ reduction will be mostly based on increasingly efficient coal power plant technology, and also on implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which should be gradually introduced in ten years time, starting from 2020. Hamburg-based coal importers association VDIK expects coal fired plant capacity to remain stable at around 29,000MW but of course with significantly less CO₂ emissions.

Biggest coal power station in Germany, near Cologne. Click on picture for full size. By TheoWasserhess, Panoramio.

Until carbon capture and storage technology is ready to be gradually introduced starting from 2020, the emphasis will be solely on increasing the effectiveness of current technologies. Germans have calculated that increasingly efficient technology should reduce emissions by 14 percent by 2015. By that time, 70 percent of power is likely to be replaced by new power plants that are now either under construction, or planned. In 2030, 30 percent of total German coal powered plants should be equipped with carbon capture and storage technology; this number should increase in 2040 to 60 percent, and in 2050 it should reach 100 percent.

If we look at the current numbers they say how the average German coal powered power plant is approximately 30 years old, and has a relatively low efficiency of just 38 percent. This is really a small efficiency compared to modern coal powered power plants that have efficiency of 46 percent, and save 20 percent of coal, and also emit 20 percent less CO₂. Coal plants with implemented carbon capture and storage technology should emit another 77 percent less CO₂ than these efficient new plants.

This German example should give valuable guidelines to many developing countries that use coal as their primary coal. The solution to less emission is clearly carbon capture and storage technology, and improved efficiency of current technologies. But to use these technologies developing countries will not only need necessary knowledge on how to use them but also a lot of money for implementation. This of course cannot be done without the help of rich countries. We must not forget that less CO₂ emissions will benefit the whole planet, not only developing countries.

Fossil fuels - dominant but dangerous

Carbon cycle process. Click on picture for full size.

Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources since they need millions of years to form and its reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being formed. Fossil fuels category includes oil, coal and natural gas. Fossil fuels when burning release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and carbon dioxide is very harmful greenhouse gas, mainly responsible for the global warming problem.

More than 6 billion gigatons of carbon dioxide is produced per year because of the burning of fossil fuels and natural processes are only capable in absorbing just about half of this amount and so we have every year increase of about 3 billion gigatons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Fossil fuels currently provide about two thirds of US electricity and about 85 % of all the energy consumed in the US. US dependence on fossil fuels is traditional and therefore dominant because America owes to fossil fuels great deal of its economic power, so it's very likely that this reliance on fossil fuels will continue in the next decades despite some significant progresses in alternative energy sources.

Fossil fuels will not last for eternity and reserves in the ground are very limited (especially the ones of oil and natural gas, better situation is with the coal) while their demand grows significantly every year. Fossil fuel is still "dirty" energy source despite of some technologies that were developed to make their use environmentally cleaner (i.e. coal purification).

Not only does combustion of fossil fuels generate carbon dioxide but it also generates sulphuric, carbonic and nitric acids that result in acid rain. Oil spilling accidents, dangerous coal mining methods are just some of the other negative environmental sides which use of fossil fuels carries.

Cleaner technologies have some potential but their potential is limited only to rich states while other states lack needed funds for this expensive research and stick with that what they already have (which is in many countries coal since it's the cheapest fossil fuel).

Alternative energy sources are getting more attention but reason for this isn't just the ecological awareness of countries' governments; it's more to do with the fact that fossil fuels are limited and so it's necessary to find alternative sources.

And while Earth is warming, world leaders still just debate about global warming and some of them even say "global warming doesn't exist". Who they try to convince? Us or themselves? Fossil fuels really need good alternative and they need it fast. But this alternative must be ecologically acceptable even if this means sacrificing economy.

CO₂ emissions by sector and type in 2005. Click on picture for full size.

Carbon capture technology - Best solution?

Carbon capture technology is technology that tends to reduce negative impact of global warming by capturing carbon dioxide(CO₂) from power plants and subsequently storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Capturing carbon dioxide means nothing without its storage and the storage of carbon dioxide is still relatively unknown in majority of the world countries.

Carbon capture technology has enormous potential and when implanted in modern power plants it could reduce emission of carbon dioxide by about 80-90% compared to the plants without these technology. However capturing carbon needs significantly bigger amount of energy and would increase fuel consumption in power plants for about 10-40%. Capital costs are significant too which all comes down to increase the costs of energy from 30-60%, which is in many countries simply economically unacceptable because of these high costs.

This picture shows working principles of carbon capture technology. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

The storage of carbon dioxide is also the problem because the carbon dioxide is either stored in deep geological formations, deep oceans, or in the form of mineral carbonates. Risk is especially expressed when storing it into deep oceans and it could greatly increase the problem of ocean acidification. Hence the best solution lies in geological formations which by some estimations have capacity of at least 2000 GT CO₂.

Carbon capture technology has significant impact in Norway where they use the method of trapping carbon dioxide and storing it long-term underground, mainly in mature oil-fields. This technology made its way to the ears of the US oil industry too, because it potentially offers a partial solution to the global warming problem without reducing US traditional dependence on oil or curbing consumption.

But this technology is still really in the development stage and would require massive fonds to become economically viable and some even say this technology lacks necessary safety because the underground storage chamber could rupture which would then release a huge bubble of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, worsening global warming at a stroke, and this is also one thing that must be taken into the consideration when talking about the good and the bad sides of carbon capture technology.

However carbon capture technology is still the step in the right direction and the subject worthy of further researching despite of its need for large investments. Quite frankly any technology that could significantly reduce emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is worthy of further researching cause ecology and environment are begging for new cleaner technologies that could put an end to a well known global warming problem. And carbon capture technology isn't exception.

Coal energy facts

Coal is non-renewable energy source.

Coal, together with oil and natural gas belongs to fossil fuels.

Coal was formed about 300 million years ago.

Coal is a combustible mostly black sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons.

Coal takes a million years to create and therefore it belongs to non-renewable energy sources.

Coal mining uses two methods: surface or underground mining where surface mining is more dominant method because it is less expensive than the underground mining.

Coal is mostly transported by train.

Coal as the other fossil fuels as well isn't ecologically acceptable because of CO2 and global warming.

Coal is classified into four main types: lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, anthracite and the coal value is determined by the amount of the carbon it contains.

Coal is mined in 27 US states.

Coal is mainly used for generating electricity (more than 90 % of US coal).

Coal usually has a negative impact on environment, mining can damage ground and surface waters and when coal burns as the fuel it releases CO2 which is the main greenhouse gas that causes global warming.

Coal power plant in Datteln (Germany) at the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal (click on picture for full size).

Coal is so called "dirty" energy source because of its negative effect on environment.

Coal could be the world's most attractive fuel in years to come thanks to the methods of coal purification which are resulting in more cleaner coal, removing sulfur and other dangerous elements.

Coal is used on the large scale in China and USA.

Coal can be answer for future only if technology will enable "ultra-clean" coal.

Coal must be relatively dry before it can be burned successfully.

World coal consumption is more than 5.3 billion tons annually of which three quarters are used for generating electricity.

Coal was already used in the Bronze age (Britain).

Coal's share in the total world electricity production is about 40 %.

Coal reserves by country (click on picture to enlarge).

Coal deposits could be enough to satisfy current world energy needs for the next 300 years.

Coal is getting more attention because of the increased prices of oil and natural gas.

Coal can be converted like to gasoline or diesel by couple of different processes like for instance the Fischer-Tropsch process, Bergius process and Karrick process.

Coal is the official state mineral of the Kentucky and official and the official state rock of Utah.

Coal total reserves are approximately about 1 × 1015 kg or 998 billion tons.

Coal is mined in more than 100 countries.

Major coal exporter is Australia with more than 240 million tonnes annually.

Coal is the main reason for China's economic boost as for China's environmental problems.

Coal is still very "dirty" energy source and therefore rich countries are looking for alternatives (for instance highly developed Germany cut coal use by a 41 percent from 1990 to 2001).