Energy Intensity and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery

Mitigating Curtailment and Carbon Emissions through Load Migration between Data Centers

Major US electric utility climate pledges have the potential to collectively reduce power sector emissions by one-third

Executive Summary: The California Climate Action Registry, which was initially established in 2000 and began operation in Fall 2002, is a voluntary registry for recording annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The purpose of the Registry is to assist California businesses and organizations in their efforts to inventory and document emissions in order to establish a baseline and to document early actions to increase energy efficiency and decrease GHG emissions. The State of California has committed to use its ''best efforts'' to ensure that entities that establish GHG emissions baselines and register their emissions will receive ''appropriate consideration under any future international, federal, or state regulatory scheme relating to greenhouse gas emissions.'' Reporting of GHG emissions involves documentation of both ''direct'' emissions from sources that are under the entity's control and indirect emissions controlled by others. Electricity generated by an off-site power source is consider ed to be an indirect GHG emission and is required to be included in the entity's report. Registry participants include businesses, non-profit organizations, municipalities, state agencies, and other entities. Participants are required to register the GHG emissions of all operations in California, and are encouraged to report nationwide. For the first three years of participation, the Registry only requires the reporting of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, although participants are encouraged to report the remaining five Kyoto Protocol GHGs (CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6). After three years, reporting of all six Kyoto GHG emissions is required. The enabling legislation for the Registry (SB 527) requires total GHG emissions to be registered and requires reporting of ''industry-specific metrics'' once such metrics have been adopted by the Registry. The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) was asked to provide technical assistance to the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) related to the Registry in three areas: (1) assessing the availability and usefulness of industry-specific metrics, (2) evaluating various methods for establishing baselines for calculating GHG emissions reductions related to specific actions taken by Registry participants, and (3) establishing methods for calculating electricity CO2 emission factors. The third area of research was completed in 2002 and is documented in Estimating Carbon Dioxide Emissions Factors for the California Electric Power Sector (Marnay et al., 2002). This report documents our findings related to the first areas of research. For the first area of research, the overall objective was to evaluate the metrics, such as emissions per economic unit or emissions per unit of production that can be used to report GHG emissions trends for potential Registry participants. This research began with an effort to identify methodologies, benchmarking programs, inventories, protocols, and registries that u se industry-specific metrics to track trends in energy use or GHG emissions in order to determine what types of metrics have already been developed. The next step in developing industry-specific metrics was to assess the availability of data needed to determine metric development priorities. Berkeley Lab also determined the relative importance of different potential Registry participant categories in order to asses s the availability of sectoral or industry-specific metrics and then identified industry-specific metrics in use around the world. While a plethora of metrics was identified, no one metric that adequately tracks trends in GHG emissions while maintaining confidentiality of data was identified. As a result of this review, Berkeley Lab recommends the development of a GHG intensity index as a new metric for reporting and tracking GHG emissions trends.Such an index could provide an industry-specific metric for reporting and tracking GHG emissions trends to accurately reflect year to year changes while protecting proprietary data. This GHG intensity index changes while protecting proprietary data. This GHG intensity index would provide Registry participants with a means for demonstrating improvements in their energy and GHG emissions per unit of production without divulging specific values. For the second research area, Berkeley Lab evaluated various methods used to calculate baselines for documentation of energy consumption or GHG emissions reductions, noting those that use industry-specific metrics. Accounting for actions to reduce GHGs can be done on a project-by-project basis or on an entity basis. Establishing project-related baselines for mitigation efforts has been widely discussed in the context of two of the so-called ''flexible mechanisms'' of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is a widely used thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique in North America, particularly in high-permeability oil sand reservoirs. While effective, its economic viability has declined due to low oil prices and high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the steam generation. To improve cost-effectiveness and reduce emissions, solvent-assisted SAGD techniques have been explored. Expanding Solvent-SAGD (ES-SAGD) involves co-injecting light hydrocarbons like propane or butane with steam to enhance oil viscosity reduction. This approach lowers the steam-oil ratio by combining solvent dissolution effects with thermal effects. However, the high cost of solvents, particularly butane, challenges its commercial feasibility. Propane is cheaper but less effective, while butane improves performance but remains expensive. This research aims to optimize ES-SAGD by using a propane-butane mixture to achieve efficient performance at a lower cost than pure butane. A linear sand pack is used to evaluate different propane/butane compositions, maintaining constant operational conditions and a solvent concentration of 15 vol.%. Temperature monitoring provides insights into steam chamber growth. Results show that solvent injection significantly enhances ES-SAGD performance compared to conventional SAGD. Performance improves with increasing butane concentration, up to 80% butane in the C3-C4 mixture at the test pressure and ambient temperature. Propane alone results in the lowest system temperature, while conventional SAGD reaches the highest temperature. These findings highlight the potential of optimized solvent mixtures to improve ES-SAGD efficiency while reducing costs and GHG emissions.

Low-carbon production of iron and steel: Technology options, economic assessment, and policy

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important starch-producing crop used worldwide. However, few studies have been conducted on the energy efficient, cost benefit, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of sweet potato production. To address this issue, the data were collected using a questionnaire for face-to-face interviews of 78 sweet potato growers and 74 reference crop (i.e., rice, maize, and potato) growers in Guangdong province. Results revealed that sweet potato production exhibited the highest value of energy efficiency (0.83 kg MJ−1) and economic productivity (0.85 kg CNY−1) among four crops. The GHG emissions from sweet potato production (1165 kg CO2-eq ha−1) were significantly higher than GHG from rice and maize but lower than GHG from potatoes. Moreover, plantation size significantly (p < 0.05) affected inputs of labor, machinery, and diesel fuel and further affected the energy rate, energy efficiency, and GHG emissions of sweet potato production. Sweet potato production in small-size farms (<2.0 ha) exhibited the highest energy efficiency (0.97 kg MJ−1) and the lowest GHG emissions (1045 kg CO2-eq ha−1). Quartering assessments based on energy efficiency, economic productivity, and GHG emissions showed that fertilizers and labor were the major contributors to energy consumption, economic costs, and GHG emissions. Future efforts should be made to reduce fertilizer application and increase fertilizer use efficiency for sustainable sweet potato production.

Addressing the challenge of rising carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a critical priority in global efforts to combat climate change. The primary aim is to assess the relationship between energy intensity, private investments in energy, renewable energy consumption, export-related factors, and their influence on CO2 and GHG emissions in Turkey. The study employs a multi-level approach using correlation and regression analyses to explore the impact of the selected variables. A Bayesian correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate the strength of relationships between variables, and a regression model was used to test the significance of each factor. Data were gathered from official sources on energy intensity, renewable energy consumption, private investments in energy, and export-related variables in Turkey from 2007 to 2022. The study employed the JASP statistical software. The analysis showed that energy intensity and private energy investments are the most significant predictors of CO2 and GHG emissions. Energy intensity exhibited a strong negative correlation with CO2 emissions per capita (r = -0.717, BF₁₀ = 10.456) and GHG emissions (r = -0.802, BF₁₀ = 44.224), highlighting the critical role of energy efficiency in reducing emissions. Renewable energy consumption also played a role, though its influence was less pronounced than energy efficiency and investment. Based on the findings, it is recommended that policymakers prioritize energy efficiency improvements and create incentives for private investment in renewable energy technologies. Future studies should focus on sector-specific energy efficiency improvements and policy frameworks to enhance private sector engagement in clean energy initiatives.

Trajectory, driving forces, and mitigation potential of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China's primary aluminum industry

There are two types of approaches for analyzing various aspects related to green-house gas (GHG) emissions, i.e., top-down and bottom-up approaches. Although the top-down approach focuses on macro-economic perspectives, the bottom-up approach is more suitable to investigate GHG emissions at an industry level utilizing domain-specific knowledge. For example, a bottom-up analysis requires a wide variety of data such as energy demands, conversion factors, and energy efficiency, which may be obtained by analyzing industrial process data. This study aims to provide a bottom-up approach for analyzing GHG emissions from shipbuilding processes in Korea. Reference energy system and energy balance for shipbuilding processes are derived for bottom-up modeling. Based on the midterm forecast on energy demands of the Korean shipbuilding industry, it is shown that the business-as-usual GHG emissions may be obtained. Relevant mitigation measures are then investigated to analyze their mitigation potentials for low-carbon ship production. 1. Introduction Global climate change has recently drawn an increasing attention due to its adverse effects on our environment. Since the inception of Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Frame-work conventions on climate change, local and international experts have long called for more international cooperation in coping with global warming. The main idea of international cooperative efforts is to impose binding obligations for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on participating countries. Even though some countries have withdrawn their commitment and others have been reluctant to adopting definite targets for emission reduction, many countries have already established a designated national authority to manage their GHG emissions. Korea has also established a national authority called "GHG Inventory and Research Center (GIR)" in 2010. One of the most important roles of GIR is to manage the national GHG emission levels and set the abatement target of various sectors through an efficient and integrated management of GHG-related information. Recently, GIR has conducted a series of research projects to analyze GHG emissions of industrial sectors in cooperation with a group of experts. This study presents the results from the analysis of GHG emissions and mitigation potentials for the shipbuilding processes in Korea. It should be noted that the scope of this study is limited to constructions processes in a shipyard even though the shipbuilding industry may encompass a broader range of industrial sectors such as steel production and transport. Adopting Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impacts (MESSAGE) developed by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in 1980s (Messner 1997), a bottom-up mathematical programming model is generated to derive the business-as-usual (BAU) GHG emissions in the construction processes in a shipyard. Abatement potentials of several technical abatement measures are also analyzed to help shipbuilders effectively cope with the issue of climate change.

Kaya identity for analysis of the main drivers of GHG emissions and feasibility to implement EU “20–20–20” targets in the Baltic States

Energy-related activities are a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A growing body of knowledge clearly depicts the links between human activities and climate change. Over the last century the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil and other human activities has released carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other heat-trapping GHG emissions into the atmosphere and thus increased the concentration of atmospheric CO2 emissions. The main human activities that emit CO2 emissions are (1) the combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity, accounting for about 37% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 31% of total U.S. GHG emissions in 2013, (2) the combustion of fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel to transport people and goods, accounting for about 31% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 26% of total U.S. GHG emissions in 2013, and (3) industrial processes such as the production and consumption of minerals and chemicals, accounting for about 15% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 12% of total ...

Enormous global reserves of unconventional heavy oil make it a significant resource for economic growth and energy security; however, its extraction faces many challenges especially on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water consumption, and recently, social acceptability. Here, we question whether it makes sense to extract and use unconventional heavy oil in spite of these externalities. We place unconventional oils (oil sands and oil shale) alongside shale gas, coal, lignite, wood and conventional oil and gas, and compare their energy intensities and life cycle GHG emissions. Our results reveal that oil shale is the most energy intensive fuel among upgraded primary fossil fuel options followed by in situ-produced bitumen from oil sands. Lignite is the most GHG intensive primary fuel followed by oil shale. Based on future world energy demand projections, we estimate that if growth of unconventional heavy oil production continues unabated, the incremental GHG emissions that results from replacing conventional oil with heavy oil would amount to 4-21 Gt-CO2eq GtCO2eq over four decades (2010 by 2050). However, prevailing socio-economic, regional and global energy politics, environmental and technological challenges may limit growth of heavy oil production and thus its GHG emissions contributions to global fossil fuel emissions may be smaller.

Well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions of electric versus combustion vehicles from 2018 to 2030 in the US

Life cycle assessment of the energy consumption and GHG emissions of state-of-the-art automotive battery cell production

Rivers play an important role in greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past decade, because of global urbanization trends, rapid land use changes have led to changes in river ecosystems that have had a stimulating effect on the greenhouse gas production and emissions. Presently, there is an urgent need for assessments of the greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions in watersheds. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate river-based greenhouse gas emissions and their spatial-temporal features as well as possible impact factors in a rapidly urbanizing area. The specific objectives were to investigate how river greenhouse gas concentrations and emission fluxes are responding to urbanization in the Liangtan River, which is not only the largest sub-basin but also the most polluted one in Chongqing City. The thin layer diffusion model method was used to monitor year-round concentrations of pCO2, CH4, and N2O in September and December 2014, and March and June 2015. The pCO2 range was (23.38±34.89)-(1395.33±55.45) Pa, and the concentration ranges of CH4 and N2O were (65.09±28.09)-(6021.36±94.36) nmol·L-1 and (29.47±5.16)-(510.28±18.34) nmol·L-1, respectively. The emission fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O, which were calculated based on the method of wind speed model estimations, were -6.1-786.9, 0.31-27.62, and 0.06-1.08 mmol·(m2·d)-1, respectively. Moreover, the CO2 and CH4 emissions displayed significant spatial differences, and these were roughly consistent with the pollution load gradient. The greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes of trunk streams increased and then decreased from upstream to downstream, and the highest value was detected at the middle reaches where the urbanization rate is higher than in other areas and the river is seriously polluted. As for branches, the greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes increased significantly from the upstream agricultural areas to the downstream urban areas. The CO2 fluxes followed a seasonal pattern, with the highest CO2 emission values observed in autumn, then successively winter, summer, and spring. The CH4 fluxes were the highest in spring and the lowest in summer, while N2O flux seasonal patterns were not significant. Because of the high carbon and nitrogen loads in the basin, the CO2 products and emissions were not restricted by biogenic elements, but levels were found to be related to important biological metabolic factors such as the water temperature, pH, DO, and chlorophyll a. The carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus content of the water combined with sewage input influenced the CH4 products and emissions. Meanwhile, N2O production and emissions were mainly found to be driven by urban sewage discharge with high N2O concentrations. Rapid urbanization accelerated greenhouse gas emissions from the urban rivers, so that in the urban reaches, CO2/CH4 fluxes were twice those of the non-urban reaches, and all over the basin N2O fluxes were at a high level. These findings illustrate how river basin urbanization can change aquatic environments and aggravate allochthonous pollution inputs such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, which in turn can dramatically stimulate river-based greenhouse gas production and emissions; meanwhile, spatial and temporal differences in greenhouse gas emissions in rivers can lead to the formation of emission hotspots.