December 2005
Can We Really Just Sweep Carbon Emissions Under The Rug?
According to chief UK scientist Sir David King, the only way to slow the progress of climate change is to store CO2 emissions underground.
The technique, known as carbon capture and sequestration, was said to be the only way forward as countries like China and India would inevitably burn their cheap coal.
Although there has been a large push in the development of Clean Coal Technologies (CCT), advanced supercritical boilers still only maintain an efficiency of 42 percent. The increase in production of so-called "dirty plants" in developing countries could push the CO2 levels over the crucial "tipping point", triggering irreversible climate change.
The costs of storage of these CO2 emissions would add 10-15% to fuel bills according to Sir David.
Carbon capture has been used commercially for years, with industries such as beverage-carbonation and petrochemicals. It involves refining exhaust gasses produced by power stations and extracting the pure CO2. The sequestration process involves the resultant CO 2 being pumped at high pressure into porous rocks underground. This storage is said to last over 1,000 years, at which time it is thought that carbon-free energy sources will have become readily available.
Other nations are already considering carbon sequestration as an option for dealing with CO2 levels. Norway and the United States are investigating storing carbon dioxide under the North Sea. British experts say that the UK could store carbon emissions for over 100 years in exhausted North Sea oil and gas fields.
The Sleipner project is the world’s first commercial carbon sequestration unit. Located in the Norwegian North Sea, it sequesters about one million metric tonnes of CO2 each year.
There are also a number of different research programmes looking into alternatives to storing CO2 underground. One strategy is to enhance the net oceanic uptake of CO2 by fertilization of phytoplankton with micro / macro-nutrients; another is to vent the CO2 directly into the ocean at a depth of over 1,000 metres, this would form underwater "lakes" of liquid CO2 at the bottom. However the long term effects of this strategy are unknown.
Some countries want to be able to trade in emission rights in carbon emission markets, to make it possible for one country to buy the benefit of carbon dioxide reservoirs in another country. It is said that such a market mechanism will help find cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse emissions. There is as yet no carbon audit regime for all such markets globally, and none is specified in the Kyoto Protocol. Each nation is on its own to verify actual carbon emission reductions and to account for carbon sequestration using less formal methods.
If you are interested to discuss carbon emissions or any of the effects it will have on energy management or specific energy efficiency measures, contact Nersi Salehi on 024 7632 3260.
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