US Could Cut all CO2 Emissions from Coal Plants by 2030
The United States could eliminate all carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired electric power plants in 20 years, according to a recent article in Environmental Science & Technology, a publication of the American Chemical Society. Success in this ambitious aim is critical to curbing the worst effects of climate change, the report states, and it can be achieved through a variety of existing technologies, including wind, geothermal and solar power, as well as carbon capture and storage.
The Muscle Backing this Claim?
Research was conducted by scientists, engineers and architects at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University Earth Institute, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and 2030 Inc./Architecture 2030. The key to achieving elimination of coal-fired emissions is replacing coal power with alternative sources. In addition to the renewable resources mentioned above, they also recommend biomass power and fourth-generation nuclear power plants. The group also calls for an end to subsidies of fossil fuels.
Perhaps most controversial is the call for ramping up carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems at coal plants. But this is absolutely necessary for eliminating coal-fired emissions by 2030. CCS will also be vital beyond 2030 and requires the most technological improvement if it is to prove successful. It would have to eventually be applied to every single coal plant in existence, which in turn would require a “reduction of capital costs (which are largely related to capture) and reduction of uncertainties related to long-term, large-scale storage.”
They also look at combining biomass power with carbon capture. In other words, they want to investigate the possibility of pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and using it to create electricity through biomass combustion, resulting in so-called “carbon-negative power.”
Regardless of specific technology, perhaps the most important assertion the article makes is that the tools necessary to eliminate carbon emissions and curb climate change are already available or will be within the next decade.
Source: Bellona.org
Photo Credit: MPR
Posted on June 18th in Solar Research by Dan.
June 18th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Carbon Capture and Sequestration is a dream that will never be realised on a large commercial scale.
Consider this.
A large (2000MW)coal fired power plant burns 6.5 Million tons of coal each year. Each ton of coal burned produces 2.86 tons of CO2, hence the plant now emits 19 million tons of CO2 each year or one ton every 1.66 seconds.
The exhaust gases from the plant need to be completely captured at the same rate they are being emitted.
The CO2 in that exhaust then needs to be separated from that exhaust, at the same rate as it is being emitted, a (very) complex process.
That CO2 then needs to be liquified, (again, a vastly complex operation done at a very low temperature converting from a from very hot exhaust gas) and done also at the same rate it is being emitted. This reduces the volume, but the weight remains the same.
That gas then needs to be pumped down perhaps hundreds (to thousands) of miles of as yet unconsidered pipelines to the field where it is proposed to remain buried (FOREVER) at the same rate as it is being emitted. Pumps will also be needed along the way, as well as cooling to keep the CO2 in a liquid state.
It then has to be pumped into the ground, keeping in mind that as you do this the temperature rises considerably, converting the liquid back to its gaseous state, and this also needs to be done at the same rate as it is being emitted. However, now you have the added CO2 from many other plants so that 1.6 tons a second rises exponentially, so pumps will have to be huge indeed.
The cost for construction at a new plant would feasibly double the cost of the plant, and consume 30% of the total power produced by the plant. Retrofitting the existing fleet could cost as much as trillions of dollars, when everything is added on.
Now consider that when all the coal fired plants in the US are taken into account, and adding the CO2 from natural gas fired plants in as well, the CO2 being emitted, in the U.S. just to produce electrical power comes in at 3.5 Billion tons.
How long would it be before that existing new field fills, and a new field is required, necessitating new pipelines, moving all the pumps etc.
That’s 3.5 Billion tons each and every year.
Now do you perceive the scale required.
Also, the Kerry Lieberman American Power act specifically prohibits the use of existing coal, natural gas or oil fields and calls for new fields only to be used.
That’s 3.5 Billion tons each year.
19 million tons, just from one large plant alone.
It’s also worth repeating all this needs to be done at the same rate as it is being emitted.
Proposing this and then even hoping to implement it are two entirely different things, and it (may) be actually achieved on a small and boutique level but to spread the story that it can actually be achieved is nothing more than a dream of the wildest proportions.
Sorry to take so much space here.
June 24th, 2010 at 4:25 am
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