Synthetic fuels, carbon dioxide and climate

Abstract

The observed increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has been attributed to the use of fossil fuels. There is concern that the generation and use of synthetic fuels derived from oil shale and coal will accelerate the increase of CO2.Depending on the source, 39 or 72 percent more CO2 would be produced per unit of energy if synthetic fuels were used instead of petroleum. The use of synthetic fuels derivved from biomass would make no net addition to atmospheric CO2 provided no fossil fuels are used in biomass production and/or conversion.Assuming that synthetic liquid fuels would gradually replace petroleum and that they would supply all of the worldwide liquid fuel demand by the year 2060, we calculated that the atmospheric CO2 concentration would increase from the current 335 parts per million on a volume basis (ppmv) to 778 ppmv in 2060. However, even if the liquid fuel demand were met by petroleum alone, the CO2 level would be 715 ppmv in that year. Furthermore, we estimated that as a result of thes...