A New Sector Mechanism for Clean Coal Technologies in a Carbon Constrained World

Limits to Paris compatibility of CO2 capture and utilization

Will blue hydrogen lock us into fossil fuels forever?

Summary Cities, contributing more than 75% of global carbon emissions, are at the heart of climate change mitigation. Given cities' heterogeneity, they need specific low-carbon roadmaps instead of one-size-fits-all approaches. Here, we present the most detailed and up-to-date accounts of CO2 emissions for 294 cities in China and examine the extent to which their economic growth was decoupled from emissions. Results show that from 2005 to 2015, only 11% of cities exhibited strong decoupling, whereas 65.6% showed weak decoupling, and 23.4% showed no decoupling. We attribute the economic-emission decoupling in cities to several socioeconomic factors (i.e., structure and size of the economy, emission intensity, and population size) and find that the decline in emission intensity via improvement in production and carbon efficiency (e.g., decarbonizing the energy mix via building a renewable energy system) is the most important one. The experience and status quo of carbon emissions and emission-GDP (gross domestic product) decoupling in Chinese cities may have implications for other developing economies to design low-carbon development pathways.

In a carbon constrained world, at least four classes of greenhouse gas mitigation options are available: Energy efficiency, fuel switching, introduction of carbon dioxide capture and storage along with renewable generating technologies, and reductions in emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases. The role of energy technologies is considered crucial in climate change mitigation. In particular, carbon capture and storage (CCS) promises to allow for low-emissions fossil-fuel based power generation. The technology is under development; a number of technological, economic, environmental and safety issues remain to be solved. With regard to its sustainability impact, CCS raises a number of questions: On the one hand, CCS may prolong the prevailing coal-to-electricity regime and countervail efforts in other mitigation categories. On the other hand, given the indisputable need to continue using fossil fuels for some time, it may serve as a bridging technology towards a sustainable energy future. In this paper, we discuss the relevant issues for the case of Germany. We provide a survey of the current state of the art of CCS and activities, and perform an energy-environment-economic analysis using a general equilibrium model for Germany. The model analyzes the impact of introducing carbon constraints with respect to the deployment of CCS, to the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, to the energy and technology mix and with respect to interaction of different mitigation efforts. The results show the relative importance of the components in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in Germany. For example, under the assumption of a CO2 policy, both energy efficiency and CCS will contribute to climate gas mitigation. A given climate target can be achieved at lower marginal costs when the option of CCS is included. We conclude that, given an appropriate legal and policy framework, CCS, energy efficiency and some other mitigation efforts are complementary measures and should form part of a broad mix of measures required for a successful CO2 mitigation strategy.

The present study presents a draft national Clean Coal Technologies and Carbon Capture and Storage Technology Roadmap to policy makers. Various technical and non-technical (economic and social) challenges that currently prevent clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage from being a widely used commercial technology are discussed and the goals for each research pathway are defined. The process of creating the roadmap started with a review and assessment of the existing national and international technology roadmaps, which represent a global picture of the state of the art and national and international plans for the future on clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage research development, demonstration, and deployment. Following this step, the national situation, capacities, and priorities were examined. Finally, research development, demonstration, and deployment actions discussed in the existing roadmaps and/or new actions were carefully selected and suggested as a draft Turkish Clean Coal Technologies and Carbon Capture and Storage Roadmap that needs further development and discussion by the input of interdisciplinary national stakeholders. As a conclusion, a number of technical and non-technical suggestions are delivered.

Greenhouse gas emissions reduction in China by cleaner coal technology towards 2020

Climate change mitigation potential of contaminated land redevelopment: A city-level assessment method

Net-zero emissions chemical industry in a world of limited resources

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century have led to increasing volumes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere[...]

This paper is the first IEA analysis that focuses on country-specific trends, opportunities and challenges for carbon capture and storage (CCS). It follows previous IEA publications on CCS and studies on cleaner coal and advanced coal technologies. The paper benefitted from significant contributions and support from the China Coal Information Institute (CCII) of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), and The Climate Group China. According to IEA analysis, if there are no major policy changes, carbon-intensive coal and other fossil fuels will continue to play a significant role in meeting future energy needs, both in China and globally. CCS is one technological option available to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the use of fossil fuels. CCS offers the opportunity to meet climate change objectives while providing energy security, as part of a portfolio of options including energy efficiency, renewable energy, nuclear energy, more efficient coal technologies and fuel switching from coal to gas. To meet global energy challenges associated with CO2 emissions, development and deployment of all available technologies will be necessary to achieve a more sustainable future. This paper discusses the status of CCS in China, providing updates on past activities in research and development (R&D), on current projects underway, and an overview of potential and challenges for CCS development in China. By exploring China’s energy and emission trends and pathways, this paper analyses China’s current CCS-related activities and policies, and options for financing CCS. The paper also provides perspectives on CCS from various Chinese stakeholders, and examples of key CCS activities with details on specific projects, and information on the regulatory and policy environment, as well as international co-operation related to CCS in China.

Large scale application of carbon capture to process industries – A review

Power generation is one of the industrial sectors with major contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. For climate change mitigation, a special attention is given to the reduction of CO2 emissions by applying capture and storage techniques in which CO2 is captured and then stored in suitable safe geologic locations. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are expected to play a significant role in the coming decades for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure a sustainable development of power generation and other energy-intensive industrial sectors (e.g. cement, metallurgy, petro-chemical etc.). This paper evaluates super-critical coal-based power plants with and without carbon capture. The analysis is geared toward quantification of main plant performance indicators such as: fuel consumption, gross and net energy efficiency, ancillary energy consumption, carbon capture rate, specific CO2 emissions, capital costs, specific capital investments and operational costs etc. For CCS configurations, two post-combustion CO2 capture options were considered. The first option is based gas-liquid absorption using a chemical solvent (methyl-diethanol-amine – MDEA etc.). The second option is based on calcium looping cycle, in which the carbonation/calcination sequence of CaO/CaCO3 system is used for carbon capture. The power plant case studies investigated in the paper produces around 950 – 1,100 MW net power with at least 90 % carbon capture rate. The mathematical modelling and simulation of the whole power generation schemes will produce the input data for quantitative techno-economic and environmental evaluations of power plants with carbon capture (similar power plant concept without CCS was used as reference for comparison). Mass and energy integration tools were used to assess the integration aspects of evaluated carbon capture options in the whole power plant design, to optimise the overall energy efficiency and to evaluate the main sources of energy penalty for CCS designs.

Cutting through the noise on negative emissions

Bioenergy from perennial grasses mitigates climate change via displacing fossil fuels and storing atmospheric CO2 belowground as soil carbon. Here, we conduct a critical review to examine whether increasing plant diversity in bioenergy grassland systems can further increase their climate change mitigation potential. We find that compared with highly productive monocultures, diverse mixtures tend to produce as great or greater yields. In particular, there is strong evidence that legume addition improves yield, in some cases equivalent to mineral nitrogen fertilization at 33–150 kg per ha. Plant diversity can also promote soil carbon storage in the long term, reduce soil N2O emissions by 30%–40%, and suppress weed invasion, hence reducing herbicide use. These potential benefits of plant diversity translate to 50%–65% greater life-cycle greenhouse gas savings for biofuels from more diverse grassland biomass grown on degraded soils. In addition, there is growing evidence that plant diversity can accelerate land restoration. Bioenergy from perennial grasses mitigates climate change via displacing fossil fuels and storing atmospheric CO2 belowground as soil carbon. Here, we conduct a critical review to examine whether increasing plant diversity in bioenergy grassland systems can further increase their climate change mitigation potential. We find that compared with highly productive monocultures, diverse mixtures tend to produce as great or greater yields. In particular, there is strong evidence that legume addition improves yield, in some cases equivalent to mineral nitrogen fertilization at 33–150 kg per ha. Plant diversity can also promote soil carbon storage in the long term, reduce soil N2O emissions by 30%–40%, and suppress weed invasion, hence reducing herbicide use. These potential benefits of plant diversity translate to 50%–65% greater life-cycle greenhouse gas savings for biofuels from more diverse grassland biomass grown on degraded soils. In addition, there is growing evidence that plant diversity can accelerate land restoration.

International concern is now focused on reducing green house gas (GHG) emissions which drive climate change. The use of fossil fuels, either flaring natural gas and burning fossil fuels, are predicted contributing GHG emissions. As a consequence, International cooperation through United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has pointed to increase policy interest in developing CO2 and GHG emission trading system. The system would allow the countries who have opportunities to reduce CO2 and GHG emission (generally developing countries) and sell or trade GHG emission reduction to the countries (generally developed countries). The second part of this paper will be emphasized on oil and gas reserves, production, refineries,and utilization. Indonesia oil resource as of January 1st, 2006 amounts to about 56.60 BBO, while gas resources as of January 1st, 2006 is about 334.5 TSCF. Indonesia has nine refineries owned by PT Pertamina (Persero) and six refineries owned by private. Indonesia has also voluntary participated in reducing GHG emissions by formulating energy policy, doing research on carbon capture and storage (CCS), and developing innovative projects. This paper will highlight the energy policy, research program and innovative projects for reducing GHG emission from oil and gas activities in Indonesia