Carbon dioxide releases from fossil-fuel burning: Statement before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Abstract

Discussion of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is given. There are three kinds of human activity that are currently resulting in net release of carbon dioxide (CO/sub 2/) to the atmosphere: burning fossil fuels, converting tropical forest area to other land use, and manufacturing cement. Although it is a comparatively small source of CO/sub 2/, cement manufacture involves the calcining of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce calcium oxide. The associated CO/sub 2/ emissions are included in the figures that follow. Production of one metric ton of cement results in the release of 0.136 metric tons of carbon as CO/sub 2/. (This does not count the fuel used in the processing). When forest area is cleared and converted to land uses that have smaller inventories of carbon in the biota and in the surface liter and soil, there is a net release of carbon to become CO/sub 2/ in the atmosphere. Every cubic meter of timber burned releases about 0.26 metric tons of carbon as CO/sub 2/ to the atmosphere, and forest clearing generally results in a release of additional carbon from the soil and surface litter. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon that has been longmore » stored in the earth is oxidized and released to the atmosphere as CO/sub 2/. Because fossil-fuel burning releases heat from the oxidation of both carbon (to produce carbon dioxide) and hydrogen (to produce water), and because the different fuel forms contain different ratios of carbon to hydrogen, the amount of CO/sub 2/ produced per unit of energy released is different for the various fuel forms. 14 figs.« less