Billion Tons Of CO2 Research Articles

Biologically generated carbon dioxide: nature's versatile chemical strategies for carboxy lyases.

Covering: up to 2019Metabolic production of CO2 is natural product chemistry on a mammoth scale. Just counting humans, among all other respiring organisms, the seven billion people on the planet exhale about 3 billion tons of CO2 per year. Essentially all of the biogenic CO2 arises by action of discrete families of decarboxylases. The mechanistic routes to CO2 release from carboxylic acid metabolites vary with the electronic demands and structures of specific substrates and illustrate the breadth of chemistry employed for C-COO (C-C bond) disconnections. Most commonly decarboxylated are α-keto acid and β-keto acid substrates, the former requiring thiamin-PP as cofactor, the latter typically cofactor-free. The extensive decarboxylation of amino acids, e.g. to neurotransmitter amines, is synonymous with the coenzyme form of vitamin B6, pyridoxal-phosphate, although covalent N-terminal pyruvamide residues serve in some amino acid decarboxylases. All told, five B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B6, B7), ATP, S-adenosylmethionine, manganese and zinc ions are pressed into service for specific decarboxylase catalyses. There are additional cofactor-independent decarboxylases that operate by distinct chemical routes. Finally, while most decarboxylases use heterolytic ionic mechanisms, a small number of decarboxylases carry out radical pathways.

Recent Advances in Solar Thermal Electrochemical Process (STEP) for Carbon Neutral Products and High Value Nanocarbons.

Climate change represents one of the most important environmental issues of our time. Due to high levels of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, atmospheric CO2 has for the first time ever exceeded 415 ppm and has increased from 315 ppm in 1950. An annual increase in atmospheric CO2 of ∼2 ppm is equal to a net increase of ∼15.6 billion tons of CO2. The combustion of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation is still the main reason accounting for the CO2 accumulation. On the top of that, fossil fuels are widely used in our modern industry for the productions of indispensable social staples. For instance, the millennia old thermal reduction of iron ore by charcoal or baked coal (3C + 2Fe2O3 → 4Fe + 3CO2) continues as the main method for the production of iron. The artificial fertilizer ammonia boosts the global population and is mainly produced from the Haber-Bosch process, in which hydrogen is generated via steam reforming of methane (CH4 + 2H2O → 4H2 + CO2). Sequestration and diminution of CO2 require the development of a portfolio of technologies on (1) efficient and long-term harvesting of renewable energy, that is, solar, not only for electricity but also directly as the energy force in vital chemical processes, wherever possible, (2) carbon-neutral processes to replace current industrial processes that emit vast amounts of CO2, such as iron and ammonia production, and (3) new, low-cost technologies for CO2 capture and conversion with particular interests in the exploration of CO2 as the feedstock for fuels or other valuable chemicals and materials. To this end, we conducted some studies on the sustainable synthesis of ammonia and iron with net-zero CO2 emissions and large-scale CO2 capture and conversion into fuels and high value nanocarbon products via electrolysis in molten salt(s) with the introduction of the Solar Thermal Electrochemical Process (STEP). In STEP, solar UV-visible energy is focused on a photovoltaic device that generates the electricity to drive the electrolysis, while concurrently the solar thermal energy is focused on a second system to generate heat for the electrolysis cell. The utilization of the full spectrum of sunlight in STEP results in a higher solar energy efficiency than other solar conversion processes. STEP has been applied to conduct (1) CO2-free ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and water with the aid of nano-Fe2O3 in a molten hydroxide electrolyte, (2) CO2-free production of iron via electrochemical reduction of iron ore in molten carbonate, (3) CO2 capture and conversion into nanostructured carbon products as well as fuels in molten or mixed molten electrolytes, and (4) organic electrosynthesis of benzoic acid from benzene without overoxidizing into CO2. In this Account, we highlight some recent achievements in these topics and propose that using STEP is a highly efficient strategy for saving energy and, consequently, the environment. STEP is an ideal tool that can theoretically be applied to all endothermic reactions.

Taxing Carbon Emissions from International Shipping

According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), maritime transport emits around 1 billion tonnes of CO2 annually and was responsible for approximately 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2014. The prediction is that greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport alone may increase between 50 and 250% by 2050, depending on future economic and energy developments. In spite of that, there is no concerted action or plan to tax or capture the CO2 emissions derived from international maritime shipping – the most widespread and popular form of transportation. This occurs in an environment where, from the perspective of corporate taxation, the international maritime industry is one of the sectors that is often taxed at some of the lowest tax brackets, if compared to other business. This article fulfils the threefold purpose of (1) discussing the international standards to which the international maritime transport network is subjected, from international public law and environmental law perspectives; (2) analysing the international tax regime applicable to the taxation of income derived from international shipping transport; and finally, (3) suggesting future policy approaches based on the principles and premises identified, to tackle carbon emissions derived from international maritime transport. The article purports to provide a full overview of the direct and indirect tax obligations which the maritime industry is under, and suggest policy approaches to assure that the environmental cost of transport is captured in the final price of products traded internationally, in order to reestablish geographic economic equity through the application of a carbon tax instrument.

(Keynote) Electroreduction of CO2 on Pb and Bi Nanoneedles

The rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration since the beginning of the Industrial Age has raised concerns on its potential effect on global temperatures. While several factors such as natural climate changes, variations in solar activity, and volcanic eruptions may also contribute to observed variations in CO2 concentrations, it has been well established that anthropogenic emissions contribute to the annual emission of over 30 billion tonnes of CO2, only about half of which is recycled through natural pathways. CO2 conversion into value-added products is an avenue explored to mitigate environmental issues. Conversion methods appear promising, as they offer the potential to produce liquid and gaseous fuels for use either in the aeronautics industry, or as a chemical storage method for the intermittent energy produced by windmills and photovoltaic panels. Fuel synthesis may be achieved via either the production of a syngas mixture (H2 and CO) through the water gas shift reaction and subsequent conversion into hydrocarbon fuel through processes such as Fisher-Tropsch, or by direct electrochemical reduction of CO2. While all methods may result in similar conversion yields, depending on the catalyst used, direct electrochemical conversion of CO2 into value-added products is a low-temperature process, with the further advantage of requiring relatively simple equipment. Formic acid, or formate salts, are used in a variety of chemical processes such as electrowinning, leather tanning, and aircraft de-icing. Alternatively, formic acid and formate salts may be considered a hydrogen storage medium. Direct formic acid, and more recently, direct formate fuel cells, have been investigated in the literature as they demonstrate significant benefits over methanol fuel cells, including higher open circuit voltage and lower crossover. Among earth-abundant CO2 electrocatalysts, Sn, Pb and Bi are known to be highly selective for formate production, with faradic efficiency (FE) > 90%. However, several challenges need to be addressed for these materials to become viable alternatives for industrial applications based on an ERC process to become economically viable. In particular, issues related with large overpotential and low current densities need to be addressed, along with the long term stability of electrodes. In this study, we compared the activity and stability for CO2 electroreduction of high surface area metallic Bi and Pb nanoneedles (see Figure 1). In both cases, the materials films were prepared through a direct electrodeposition (potentiostatic method). Both types of films were extensively characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD), while electrochemical activities were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and potentiostatic measurements. Figure 1

Intensifying the CO2 Electrolysis Process

Every year we emit approximately 26 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.1 As a result, the atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased from 316 to 408 ppm (NOAA, Mauna Loa HI) over the past 50 years. Global temperature anomalies have increased by 1°C leading to adverse environmental impact. The atmospheric CO2 concentration needs to be reduced in order to curb such effects. Electrochemical conversion of CO2 into value added chemicals such as methanol, formic acid, and carbon monoxide is a promising method for reducing the excess atmospheric CO2 content.2-5 If the end product obtained from the process is CO, the system could be coupled to a Fischer Tropsch (FT) reactor to form liquid fuels.6 Many research efforts in academia and industry seek to identify and optimize suitable catalysts, electrodes, electrolytes, and associated operation conditions that allow for the energy efficient and selective electrolysis of CO2 into one of the aforementioned value-added intermediates.6 By using a gas-diffusion electrode (GDE) based flow electrolyzer, CO2 can be fed as a gas, thereby circumventing any solubility and mass transfer issues, resulting in high current densities (>400 mA cm-2).7-8 Despite progress in catalyst activity and selectivity, as well as in electrode and electrolyzer performance, still significant further improvements are needed to reach techno-economic feasibility at scale.9 This presentation will cover multiple directions that can be explored (for an alkaline GDE-based flow electrolyzer) to achieve the needed improvement in performance: The first part of this presentation will cover process optimization where we systematically vary various process parameters like cathode catalyst loading, electrolyte flow rate, and electrolyte concentration to operate at peak performance. In the second part, we will cover how electrolyte composition can be tailored to achieve higher current densities and better Faradaic efficiencies by using high pH and using large alkali metal cations such as Cs+. The third part demonstrates the use of a Ni & Fe based bimetallic anode catalyst which gives a 200 mV reduction in overpotential compared to the typically used IrO2 anode catalyst. And lastly, in the fourth part, we present some results regarding further process intensification where we studied the effect of operating temperature. References J. Oerlemans, Science, 2005, 308, 675-677K. W. Frese, S. Leach, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 1985, 132, 259-260Y. Hori, H. Wakebe, T. Tsukamoto, O. Koga, Electrochimica Acta, 1994, 39, 1833-1839Y. Hori, K. Kikuchi, S. Suzuki, Chemistry Letters, 1985, 11, 1695-1698B. A. Rosen, A. Salehi-Khojin, M.R. Thorson, W. Zhu, D.T. Whipple, P.J.A. Kenis, R.I. Masel, Science, 2011, 334, 643-644B. Endrodi, G. Bencsik, F. Darvas, R. Jones, K. Rajeshwar, C. Janaky, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 2017, 62, 133-154D. T. Whipple, E.C. Finke, P.J.A. Kenis, Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, 2010, 13, B109-B111S. Verma, X. Lu, S. Ma, R. I. Masel, P. J. A. Kenis, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2016, 18, 7075-7084S. Verma, B. Kim, H. R. M. Jhong, S. Ma, P. J. A. Kenis, ChemSusChem, 2016, 9, 1972-1979

Greening the one belt and one road initiative

Aiming at investing in infrastructure far across the distance and spaces in continents, the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative has the potential to transform transportation, urbanization, trade, and employment from East Asia to Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and beyond. With this initiative, low-income and emerging economies in these regions that have substantial dependencies on primary economic activities are likely to experience massive urbanization and associated environmental impacts such as unwanted immigration, regional air/water pollution, and carbon emissions. In the long term, negative unforeseen consequences to local and global environments can severely undermine the credibility of the OBOR and its participating countries. In the paper, we focus specifically on the energy sector, using the Port of Baku in Azerbaijan as a case study, to demonstrate the impact of greening infrastructure investments in the OBOR. After presenting the business as usual scenario for future energy consumption in the Port of Baku, namely using fossil fuel to power the Port, we present a port-greening scenario, namely using wind energy to power the Port. The results show that if a small portion of funds, namely 5% of total investment, is added on the top of total capital investment budget for new renewable energy investments, the Port will become green, and each dollar of the marginal greening investment can lead to 424 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction. If the case is applicable to 10% of infrastructure investments under the OBOR, a total of $20 billion is needed, and the marginal investments will likely mitigate a total of 8.48 billion tonnes of CO2.

Thermal removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere: energy requirements and scaling issues

I conduct a system-level study of direct air capture of CO2 using techniques from thermal physics. This system relies on a combination of an efficient heat exchanger, radiative cooling, and refrigeration, all at industrial scale and operated in environments at low ambient temperatures. While technological developments will be required for such a system to operate efficiently, those developments rest on a long history of refrigeration expertise and technology, and they can be developed and tested at modest scale. I estimate that the energy required to remove CO2 via this approach is comparable to direct air capture by other techniques. The most challenging aspect of building a system that could remove 1 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year is the power demand of 112 to 420 GW during the wintertime operational period.

Effect of subsidies to fossil fuel companies on United States crude oil production

Countries in the G20 have committed to phase out ‘inefficient’ fossil fuel subsidies. However, there remains a limited understanding of how subsidy removal would affect fossil fuel investment returns and production, particularly for subsidies to producers. Here, we assess the impact of major federal and state subsidies on US crude oil producers. We find that, at recent oil prices of US$50 per barrel, tax preferences and other subsidies push nearly half of new, yet-to-be-developed oil investments into profitability, potentially increasing US oil production by 17 billion barrels over the next few decades. This oil, equivalent to 6 billion tonnes of CO2, could make up as much as 20% of US oil production through 2050 under a carbon budget aimed at limiting warming to 2 °C. Our findings show that removal of tax incentives and other fossil fuel support policies could both fulfil G20 commitments and yield climate benefits. Governments give a variety of subsidies to fossil fuel companies, but G20 nations have committed to phasing these out. Erickson et al. analyse subsidies provided to new crude oil fields in the US and find that, at current oil prices, nearly half of them depend on these subsidies to proceed.

Carbon storage in wood products

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas causing global warming. The combustion of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. It has been estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tons of atmospheric CO2 per year. Air pollution monitoring readings across the globe rose at the highest rate on record in 2015 and 2016. If fossil resources are used as energy resources then that means increase of carbon in the atmosphere and increase of CO2 in the atmosphere; if biomass resources are used as energy sources the amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere will increase, however the total amount of carbon in atmosphere will remain the same. To find out the actual amounts of CO2 that can avoided by storing carbon in bioproducts it is important to do an analysis evaluating the amounts of CO2 avoided by storing carbon in the product versus CO2 emitted during the production processes. CO2 emitted during the production processes of the bioproduct should be reduced to minimum. To verify the proposed method of evaluating the amounts of stored carbon versus the emissions during production process three popular wood products were analysed – oriented strand board (OSB), medium density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (PB).

(Keynote) Formate/Formic Acid Synthesis from CO2 Electroduction Using Bi and Pb Nanostructures

The rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration since the beginning of the Industrial Age has raised concerns on its potential effect on global temperatures. While several factors such as natural climate changes, variations in solar activity, and volcanic eruptions may also contribute to observed variations in CO2 concentrations, it has been well established that anthropogenic emissions contribute to the annual emission of over 30 billion tonnes of CO2, only about half of which is recycled through natural pathways. CO2 conversion into value-added products is an avenue explored to mitigate environmental issues. Conversion methods appear promising, as they offer the potential to produce liquid and gaseous fuels for use either in the aeronautics industry, or as a chemical storage method for the intermittent energy produced by windmills and photovoltaic panels. Fuel synthesis may be achieved via either the production of a syngas mixture (H2 and CO) through the water gas shift reaction and subsequent conversion into hydrocarbon fuel through processes such as Fisher-Tropsch, or by direct electrochemical reduction of CO2. While all methods may result in similar conversion yields, depending on the catalyst used, direct electrochemical conversion of CO2 into value-added products is a low-temperature process, with the further advantage of requiring relatively simple equipment. Formic acid, or formate salts, are used in a variety of chemical processes such as electrowinning, leather tanning, and aircraft de-icing. Alternatively, formic acid and formate salts may be considered a hydrogen storage medium. Direct formic acid, and more recently, direct formate fuel cells, have been investigated in the literature as they demonstrate significant benefits over methanol fuel cells, including higher open circuit voltage and lower crossover. Pb and Bi are promising catalysts with good selectivity for formate. Bismuth is non-toxic and has negligible environmental impact. It has few commercial applications, and its price has been low and relatively stable in recent years. In the case of Lead, it can be prepared in the form of dendrites with nanometre-sized tips. Local high electric fields can exist at the tip of these dendrites that can induce a concentration of electrolyte which in turn leads to a high local concentrations of CO2. In this study, we compared the activity and stability for CO2 electroreduction of high surface area metallic Bi and Pb films. In both cases, the materials films were prepared through a direct electrodeposition (potentiostatic method). Both types of films were extensively characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD), while electrochemical activities were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and potentiostatic measurements. Figure 1

Carbon Based Atomic Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Technological development and human mobility depends heavily on fossil-fuel-based energy infrastructure. The byproduct of this is a surplus generation of carbon dioxide (CO2) which causes major environmental challenges, and addressing this problem is technologically challenging. The mitigation of CO2 emissions involve separation, capture and sequestration of a significant fraction of the billion tons of CO2 currently produced worldwide each year. A more promising and direct alternative is a chemically recycling process that converts CO2 to carbon-neutral fuels or commodity chemicals employing water as the hydrogen source via electrochemical catalysis. This technology not only reduces greenhouse gases but also provides pathways to sustainable energy. The chemical reduction of CO2 is a complicated process involving multiple proton coupled electron transfer, theoretically resulting in a variety of products (e.g. CO, HCOOH, CH3OH, C2H4 and C2H5OH). Therefore the major challenge in CO2 reduction lies in the manipulation of the selectivity towards a specific product as demanded. However, the study on CO2 reduction has not substantially advanced primarily because of the lack of fundamental understanding of the reaction mechanism and the challenge of discovering efficient and robust catalysts for the various multi-electron transfer processes. Researchers have screened a wide range of materials for electrochemical reduction of CO2, including metals, alloys, organometallics, layered materials and carbon nanostructures, only copper (Cu) exhibits selectivity towards formation of multi-carbon hydrocarbons and oxygenates at fairly high efficiencies while most others favor production of carbon monoxide or formate. However, Cu suffers from the poor selectivity and large overpotential in the reactions. Compared to traditional metal nanoparticle catalysts, sub-nanometer and single atom metal catalysts (atomic catalysts) possess enhanced catalytic activity. Beyond metal-based atomic catalysts, we have recently shown metal free atomic catalysts of nitrogen (N) doped carbon sp2 sheets (graphene) as possible CO2 reduction catalysts. We designed N-incorporated carbon nanostructures (N-doped carbon nanotubes and N-doped graphene) for selective and efficient electro-reduction of CO2 into CO with high efficiency (~80%) and at low overpotential.1-3 We further demonstrated that the N-doped carbon materials can be atomically engineered to achieve the yield of high order (C2 and C3) products. when enriching the N-doping at the edge of carbon nanostructures, the N-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs, thickness ~ 1nm and diameter ~ 2 nm) exhibit exceptional activity towards formation of C2 products (C2H4 and C2H5OH) with high Faradaic efficiency of 40%, and the current density is enhanced to the order of magnitude of 100 mA/cm2 at this potentialOc.4 This is for the first time the metal-free electrocatalyst has been discovered to steer the CO2reduction to produce C2 hydrocarbons and oxygenantes at a relatively high yield comparable to those obtained with copper nanoparticle-based electrocatalysts.

Assessing ocean alkalinity for carbon sequestration

AbstractOver the coming century humanity may need to find reservoirs to store several trillions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from fossil fuel combustion, which would otherwise cause dangerous climate change if it were left in the atmosphere. Carbon storage in the ocean as bicarbonate ions (by increasing ocean alkalinity) has received very little attention. Yet recent work suggests sufficient capacity to sequester copious quantities of CO2. It may be possible to sequester hundreds of billions to trillions of tons of C without surpassing postindustrial average carbonate saturation states in the surface ocean. When globally distributed, the impact of elevated alkalinity is potentially small and may help ameliorate the effects of ocean acidification. However, the local impact around addition sites may be more acute but is specific to the mineral and technology. The alkalinity of the ocean increases naturally because of rock weathering in which >1.5 mol of carbon are removed from the atmosphere for every mole of magnesium or calcium dissolved from silicate minerals (e.g., wollastonite, olivine, and anorthite) and 0.5 mol for carbonate minerals (e.g., calcite and dolomite). These processes are responsible for naturally sequestering 0.5 billion tons of CO2 per year. Alkalinity is reduced in the ocean through carbonate mineral precipitation, which is almost exclusively formed from biological activity. Most of the previous work on the biological response to changes in carbonate chemistry have focused on acidifying conditions. More research is required to understand carbonate precipitation at elevated alkalinity to constrain the longevity of carbon storage. A range of technologies have been proposed to increase ocean alkalinity (accelerated weathering of limestone, enhanced weathering, electrochemical promoted weathering, and ocean liming), the cost of which may be comparable to alternative carbon sequestration proposals (e.g., $20–100 tCO2−1). There are still many unanswered technical, environmental, social, and ethical questions, but the scale of the carbon sequestration challenge warrants research to address these.

Industrial CO2 and Carbon Capture: Near-term Benefit, Long-term Necessity

Industry emits approximately 1 billion tonnes of CO2 each year (1 GTCO2/yr) in the United States–one-third of US stationary emissions–and an even greater amount in industry-heavy China. We hypothesize that capturing industrial CO2 offers a near-term pathway to jumpstart CO2 capture and storage (CCS) and is a long-term necessity to stabilize atmospheric CO2 in order to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. We explore this proposition using several new CO2 emissions and storage databases for the United States, as well as emerging research including the economics of industrial CO2 capture. We refer to our new “sources of CO2 that are not electricity” database as SCO2NE.

A clean environmental week: Let the nature breathe

High levels of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and toxic pollutants in air, water and food have serious repercussions on all life's systems, including living beings, environment and economy. Everyone on the Earth is concerned by pollution in some way or another, no matter where and how the pollution is produced as airborne and foodborne pollutants could circulate around the world in different ways, through for example climate components (wind, rain) and/or import and export of foodstuffs. Similarly to living beings that take advantage of day-night circadian rhythms to recover after diurnal hardships, the environment in its entirety could also be seen as a complex living system that needs regular breaks to assimilate or ingest toxic pollutants produced during intensive and continuous industrial processes. If greenhouses gas emissions and pollution rates continue to increase at the same rates as they are nowadays, uncontrollable climate effects might be inevitable and the air quality in some crowded cities in the world might be hardly respirable in the future. A global “Clean Environmental Week” is discussed as an attempt toward reducing air pollution and CO2 emissions through the interruption or reduction of industrial polluting activities regularly, for a week or so per year, to let the nature ‘breathe’ and recover from environmentally challenging pollutions. A clean environmental period of 10 days per year could reduce CO2 emissions by about one billion tons of CO2 per annum.

How much can nuclear energy do about global warming?

The framework MESSAGE from the IIASA fulfills the IPCC requirement RCP 2.6. To achieve this, it proposes the use of massive deployment of Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), dealing with tens of billion tons of CO2. However, present knowledge of this process rests on a few experiments at the annual million tons level. MESSAGE includes three scenarios: 'Supply' with a high energy consumption; 'Efficiency' which implies the end of nuclear energy and the intermediary 'MIX'. We propose, as a variant of the MESSAGE framework, to initiate a sustained deployment of nuclear production in 2020, reaching a total nuclear power around 20,000 GWe by the year 2100. Our scenarios considerably reduce the interest or necessity for CCS. Renouncing nuclear power requires an energy consumption reduction of more than 40% compared to the 'Supply' scenario, without escaping the need to store more than 15 billion tons of CO2.

How much can nuclear energy do about global warming?

The framework MESSAGE from the IIASA fulfills the IPCC requirement RCP 2.6. To achieve this, it proposes the use of massive deployment of Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), dealing with tens of billion tons of CO2. However, present knowledge of this process rests on a few experiments at the annual million tons level. MESSAGE includes three scenarios: ‘Supply’ with a high energy consumption; ‘Efficiency’ which implies the end of nuclear energy and the intermediary ‘MIX’. We propose, as a variant of the MESSAGE framework, to initiate a sustained deployment of nuclear production in 2020, reaching a total nuclear power around 20,000 GWe by the year 2100. Our scenarios considerably reduce the interest or necessity for CCS. Renouncing nuclear power requires an energy consumption reduction of more than 40% compared to the ‘Supply’ scenario, without escaping the need to store more than 15 billion tons of CO2.

Carbon Dioxide Plume Geothermal (CPG) System-A New Approach for Enhancing Geothermal Energy Production and Deployment of CCUS on Large Scale in India

Abstract Geothermal energy is described as the process of extracting the heat generated by the earth and harnessing it to produce electricity. Geothermal energy is capable of providing clean, consistent, reliable electricity production even without the need for grid scale energy storage unlike the renewable energy alternatives such as solar energy, wind energy, etc.. In present scenario, 22 billion tonnes of CO 2 are emitted into the atmosphere from human sources which are considered as waste and also the biggest reasons for the promotion of Global warming through GHGs. CO 2 Plume geothermal technology (CPG) involves capturing the CO 2 from waste emissions such as coal fired power plant using CCUS technology and injecting it into natural, highly permeable geologic formations to extract energy. The CO 2 in the subsurface absorbs heat from the reservoir, buoyantly rises to the surface and drives power generation system. In this paper, we have analysed the thermodynamic and fluid mechanical properties of CO 2 suggesting that the CO 2 from emissions can be used as best working fluid in subsurface to harness significant amount of energy from geologic heat. Production of electric energy along with its supply in conjunction with CCUS can improve economic viability of CO 2 Sequestration which is the major hurdle for its large scale implementation in India and all around the world. Further we present the simulation results demonstrating the potential of geothermal energy capture of CPG compared to other geothermal systems and its implications on geologic CO 2 sequestration in terms of economic viability in the Indian context.

Inventory and Policy Reduction Potential of Greenhouse Gas and Pollutant Emissions of Road Transportation Industry in China

In recent years, emissions from the road transportation industry in China have been increasing rapidly. To evaluate the reduction potential of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions of the industry in China, its emission inventory was calculated and scenario analysis was created for the period between 2012 and 2030 in this paper. Based on the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) model, the development of China’s road transportation industry in two scenarios (the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and the comprehensive-mitigation (CM) scenario) was simulated. In the Comprehensive Mitigation scenario, there are nine various measures which include Fuel Economy Standards, Auto Emission Standards, Energy-saving Technology, Tax Policy, Eco-driving, Logistics Informatization, Vehicle Liquidation, Electric Vehicles, and Alternative Fuels. The cumulative energy and emission reductions of these specific measures were evaluated. Our results demonstrate that China’s road transportation produced 881 million metric tons of CO2 and emitted 1420 thousand tons of CO, 2150 thousand tons of NOx, 148 thousand tons of PM10, and 745 thousand tons of HC in 2012. The reduction potential is quite large, and road freight transportation is the key mitigation subsector, accounting for 85%–92% of the total emission. For energy conservation and carbon emission mitigation, logistics informatization is the most effective method, potentially reducing 1.80 billion tons of coal equivalent and 3.83 billion tons of CO2 from 2012 to 2030. In terms of air pollutant emission mitigation, the auto emission standards measure performs best with respect to NOx, PM10, and HC emission mitigation, and logistic informatization measure is the best in CO emission reduction. In order to maximize the mitigation potential of China’s road transportation industry, the government needs to implement various measures in a timely and strict fashion.

Impact of foot-and-mouth disease status on deforestation in Brazilian Amazon and cerrado municipalities between 2000 and 2010

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon released approximately 5.7 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010, and 50–80% of this deforestation was for pasture. Most assume that increasing demand for cattle products produced in Brazil caused this deforestation, but the empirical work to-date on cattle documents only correlations between cattle herd size, pasture expansion, cattle prices, and deforestation. This paper uses panel data on deforestation and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) status—an exogenous demand shifter—to estimate whether changes in FMD status caused new deforestation in municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon and cerrado biomes during the 2000–2010 period. Results suggest that, on average, becoming certified as FMD-free caused a temporary spike in deforestation in the 2 years after a municipality became FMD-free, but caused subsequent deforestation to decline relative to infected municipalities during the 2000–2010 period.

Decoupling global environmental pressure and economic growth: scenarios for energy use, materials use and carbon emissions

In recent decades economic growth and increased human wellbeing around the globe have come at the cost of fast growing natural resource use (including materials and energy) and carbon emissions, leading to converging pressures of declining resource security, rising and increasingly volatile natural resource prices, and climate change. We ask whether well-designed policies can reduce global material and energy use, and carbon emissions, with only minimal impacts on improvements in living standards. We use a novel approach of combined economic and environmental modelling to assess the potential for decoupling for 13 world regions and globally. We apply a production (territorial) and consumption approach to discuss regional differences in natural resource use and carbon emissions across three stylized policy outlooks: a reference case with no significant changes to environment and climate policies; a ‘high efficiency’ outlook involving a global carbon price rising from $50 to $236 (constant price) per tonne of CO2 between 2010 and 2050 and improvements in resource efficiency (rising from 1.5% historically to between 3.5% and 4.5% in the scenarios); and a ‘medium efficiency’ outlook midway between the ‘no change’ and ‘high’ outlooks. We find that global energy use will continue to grow rapidly under all three scenarios from 17 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 2010 to between 30 and 36 billion toe. Carbon emissions would be considerably lower with a global carbon price, less than half the level of the reference case (29–37 billion tonnes of CO2 instead of 74 billion tonnes) and also material use would grow much more slowly under a carbon price and significant investment to increase resource efficiency (95 instead of 180 billion tonnes of materials). We find that OECD economies have significant potential to reduce their material throughput and carbon emissions with little impact on economic growth, and that developing economies such as China could expand their economies at much lower environmental cost. Globally, the effects of very strong abatement and resource efficiency policies on economic growth and employment until 2050 are negligible. Our study suggests that decarbonization and dematerialization are possible with well-designed policy settings and would not contradict efforts to raise human wellbeing and standards of living. The research demonstrates the usefulness of scenarios for unpacking environmental and economic outcomes of policy alternatives. The findings have important implications for future economic opportunities in a highly resource efficient and low carbon global economy to set human development and achieving the sustainable development goals on a more resilient path.