Carbon capture and storage potential in coal-fired plant in Malaysia—A review

Secure, reliable and affordable energy supplies are necessary for sustainable economic growth, but increases in associated carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and the associated risk of climate change are a cause of major concern. Experts have projected that the CO₂ emissions related to the energy sector will increase 130% by 2050 in the absence of new policies or supply constraints as a result of increased fossil fuel usage. To address this issue will require an energy technology revolution involving greater energy efficiency, increased renewable energies and nuclear power, and the near-decarbonisation of fossil fuel-based power generation. Nonetheless, fossil fuel usage is expected to continue to dominate global energy supply. The only technology available to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from large-scale fossil fuel usage is carbon capture and storage (CCS), an essential part of the portfolio of technologies that is needed to achieve deep global emission reductions. However, CCS technology faces numerous issues and challenges before it can be successfully deployed. With Malaysia has recently pledged a 40% carbon reduction by 2020 in the Copenhagen 2009 Climate Summit, CCS technology is seen as a viable option in order to achieve its target. Thus, this paper studies the potential and feasibility of coal-fired power plant with CCS technology in Malaysia which includes the choices of coal plants and types of capture technologies possible for implementation.     

Surface reflectance and conversion efficiency dependence of technologies for mitigating global warming

A means of assessing the relative impact of different renewable energy technologies on global warming has been developed. All power plants emit thermal energy to the atmosphere. Fossil fuel power plants also emit CO₂ which accumulates in the atmosphere and provides an indirect increase in global warming via the greenhouse effect. A fossil fuel power plant may operate for some time before the global warming due to its CO₂ emission exceeds the warming due to its direct heat emission. When a renewable energy power plant is deployed instead of a fossil fuel power plant there may be a significant time delay before the direct global warming effect is less than the combined direct and indirect global warming effect from an equivalent output coal fired plant – the “business as usual” case. Simple expressions are derived to calculate global temperature change as a function of ground reflectance and conversion efficiency for various types of fossil fuelled and renewable energy power plants. These expressions are used to assess the global warming mitigation potential of some proposed Australian renewable energy projects. The application of the expressions is extended to evaluate the deployment in Australia of current and new geo-engineering and carbon sequestration solutions to mitigate global warming. Principal findings are that warming mitigation depends strongly on the solar to electric conversion efficiency of renewable technologies, geo-engineering projects may offer more economic mitigation than renewable energy projects and the mitigation potential of reforestation projects depends strongly on the location of the projects.     

Which factors drive CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions in EU-15? Decomposition and innovative accounting

This study breaks down carbon emissions into six effects within the 15 European Union countries group (EU-15) and analyses their evolution in four distinct periods: 1995–2000 (before European directive 2001/77/EC), 2001–2004 (after European directive 2001/77/EC and before Kyoto), 2005–2007 (after Kyoto implementation), and 2008–2010 (after Kyoto first stage), to determine which of them had more impact in the intensity of emissions. The complete decomposition technique was used to examine the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and its components: carbon intensity (CI effect); changes in fossil fuels consumption towards total energy consumption (EM effect); changes in energy intensity effect (EG effect); the average renewable capacity productivity (GC effect); the change in capacity of renewable energy per capita (CP effect); and the change in population (P effect). It is shown that in the post Kyoto period there is an even greater differential in the negative changes in CO₂ emissions, which were caused by the negative contribution of the intensity variations of the effects EM, GC, CP and P that exceeded the positive changes occurred in CI and EG effects. It is also important to stress the fluctuations in CO₂ variations before and after Kyoto, turning positive changes to negative changes, especially in France, Italy and Spain, revealing the presence of heterogeneity. Moreover, the positive effect of renewable capacity per capita and the negative effect of renewable capacity productivity are the main factors influencing the reduction in CO₂ emissions during the Kyoto first stage. It is possible to infer from the results that one of the ways to reduce emissions intensity will be by increasing the renewable capacity and the productivity in energy generation and consequently through the reduction of the share of the consumption of fossil fuels.     

Five-year technology selection optimization to achieve specific CO2 emission reduction targets

Long-term planning for replacement of fossil fuel energy technologies with renewables is of great importance for achieving GHG emission reduction targets. The current study is focused on developing a five-year mathematical model for finding the optimal sizing of renewable energy technologies for achieving certain CO₂ emission reduction targets. A manufacturing industrial facility which uses CHP for electricity generation and natural gas for heating is considered as the base case in this work. Different renewable energy technologies are developed each year to achieve a 4.53% annual CO₂ emission reduction target. The results of this study show that wind power is the most cost-effective technology for reducing emissions in the first and second year with a cost of 44 and 69 CAD per tonne of CO₂, respectively. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is more cost-effective than wind power in reducing CO₂ emissions from the third year on. The cost of CO₂ emission reduction with hydrogen doesn't change drastically from the first year to the fifth year (107 and 130 CAD per tonne of CO₂). Solar power is a more expensive technology than wind power for reducing CO₂ emissions in all years due to lower capacity factor (in Ontario), more intermittency (requiring mores storage capacity), and higher investment cost. A hybrid wind/battery/hydrogen energy system has the lowest emission reduction cost over five years. The emission reduction cost of such hybrid system increases from 44 CAD per tonne of CO₂ in the first year to 156 CAD per tonne of CO₂ in the fifth year. The developed model can be used for long-term planning of energy systems for achieving GHG emission targets in a regions/country which has fossil fuel-based electricity and heat generation infrastructure.     

Quantification of provincial-level carbon emissions from energy consumption in China

Greenhouse gas emission inventories are useful tools for monitoring air quality and assisting local policy development. This article estimates CO₂ emission inventories from energy consumption and carbon intensities of provinces and municipalities in Mainland China in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005–2008 using the IPCC mass balance approach. Results show that China's coal-based energy structure and unique economic development have heavily impacted CO₂ emissions. Fortunately, although coal consumption has increased to over 70% of all fuel use, the share of CO₂ emissions from coal has gradually decreased due to energy consumption restructuring. The switch from coal-dominance to cleaner, renewable energies (wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear power, geothermal, biomass energy) will undoubtedly reduce CO₂ emissions in China. Results also indicate that carbon intensity has improved steadily, as China's economic development introduces new technologies intended to minimize environmental pollution and destruction. Our results suggest that China's CO₂ emissions may not be as high as expected in future, and will gradually lessen.     

Cost-effective CO2 emission reduction through heat,power and biofuel production from woody biomass: A spatially explicit comparison of conversion technologies

Bioenergy is regarded as cost-effective option to reduce CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Among newly developed biomass conversion technologies are biomass integrated gas combined cycle plants (BIGCC) as well as ethanol and methanol production based on woody biomass feedstock. Furthermore, bioenergy systems with carbon capture and storage (BECS) may allow negative CO₂ emissions in the future. It is still not clear which woody biomass conversion technology reduces fossil CO₂ emissions at least costs. This article presents a spatial explicit optimization model that assesses new biomass conversion technologies for fuel, heat and power production and compares them with woody pellets for heat production in Austria. The spatial distributions of biomass supply and energy demand have significant impact on the total supply costs of alternative bioenergy systems and are therefore included in the modeling process. Many model parameters that describe new bioenergy technologies are uncertain, because some of the technologies are not commercially developed yet. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to analyze model parameter uncertainty. Model results show that heat production with pellets is to be preferred over BIGCC at low carbon prices while BECS is cost-effective to reduce CO₂ emissions at higher carbon prices. Fuel production – methanol as well as ethanol – reduces less CO₂ emissions and is therefore less cost-effective in reducing CO₂ emissions.     

Needs, resources and climate change: Clean and efficient conversion technologies

Energy “powers” our life, and energy consumption correlates strongly with our standards of living. The developed world has become accustomed to cheap and plentiful supplies. Recently, more of the developing world populations are striving for the same, and taking steps towards securing their future energy needs. Competition over limited supplies of conventional fossil fuel resources is intensifying, and more challenging environmental problems are springing up, especially related to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. There is strong evidence that atmospheric CO₂ concentration is well correlated with the average global temperature. Moreover, model predictions indicate that the century-old observed trend of rising temperatures could accelerate as carbon dioxide concentration continues to rise. Given the potential danger of such a scenario, it is suggested that steps be taken to curb energy-related CO₂ emissions through a number of technological solutions, which are to be implemented in a timely fashion. These solutions include a substantial improvement in energy conversion and utilization efficiencies, carbon capture and sequestration, and expanding the use of nuclear energy and renewable sources. Some of these technologies already exist, but are not deployed at sufficiently large scale. Others are under development, and some are at or near the conceptual state.     

Co-benefit analysis of incentives for energy generation and storage systems; a multi-stakeholder perspective

In this work, we are analyzing the advantages of energy incentives for all the stakeholders in an energy system. The stakeholders include the government, the energy hub operator, and the energy consumer. Two streams of energy incentives were compared in this work: incentives for renewable energy generation technologies and incentives for energy storage technologies. The first type aims increasing the share of renewable energies in the electricity system while the second type aims development of systems which use clean electricity to replace fossil fuels in other sectors of an energy system such as the transportation, residential and industrial sector. In this work, we are analyzing the advantages of energy incentives for all the stakeholders in an energy system. The stakeholders include the government, the energy hub operator, and the energy consumer. Two streams of energy incentives were compared in this work: incentives for renewable energy generation technologies and incentives for energy storage technologies. The first type aims to increase the share of renewable energies in the electricity system while the second type aims the development of systems which use clean electricity to replace fossil fuels in other sectors of an energy system such as the transportation, residential and industrial sector. The results of the analysis showed that replacing fossil fuel-based electricity generation with wind and solar power is a less expensive way for the energy consumer to reduce GHG emissions (60 and 92 CAD/ tonne CO_2e for wind and solar, respectively) compared to investing on energy storage technologies (225 and 317 CAD/ tonne CO_2e for Power-to-Gas and battery powered forklifts, respectively). However, considering the current Ontario's electricity mix, incentives for the Power-to-Gas and battery powered technologies are less expensive ways to reduce emissions compared to replacing the grid with wind and solar power technologies (1479 and 2418 CAD/ tonne CO_2e for wind and solar, respectively). Our analysis also shows that battery storage and hydrogen storage are complementary technologies for reducing GHG emissions in Ontario.     

Thermal cracking of methane into Hydrogen for a CO2-free utilization of natural gas

The transition to a low-Carbon Hydrogen production will unavoidably follow a path where fossil fuels are going to play a fundamental role in the short term. The technological development of Hydrogen production based on sustainable, renewable energies (wind, solar, biomass) will most likely characterize the gradual substitution of fossil-based Hydrogen production in the long term. In this transition, the environmental concerns regarding greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere are a crucial issue, fostering the development of Hydrogen production scenarios in which either carbon capture and sequestration or decarburation could be implemented as mitigation or adaptation measures in order to avoid CO₂ release from the utilization of fossil fuels. Therefore, the development of CO₂-free technologies enabling fossil fuels exploitation is a must to make compatible their utilization with emission reductions. New innovative solutions should be put into practice. In this regard, methane cracking is a promising alternative and its potentials are highlighted and analyzed in this paper.     

From hydrocarbon to hydrogen–carbon to hydrogen economy

In the near- to medium-term future, hydrogen production will continue to rely on fossil fuels, and will, therefore, remain a potential source of significant CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. Conventional CO₂ sequestration strategies offer rather expensive and ecologically uncertain solutions. The objective of this paper is to explore novel approaches to solving energy and environmental problems associated with the production of hydrogen from fossil fuels. The paper discusses the technological, environmental and economical aspects of large-scale production of hydrogen and carbon by the catalytic dissociation of natural gas (NG). The authors propose a scenario of fossil-based “hydrogen–carbon” infrastructure, where the hydrogen component of NG is used as a clean energy carrier (e.g., in transportation) and the carbon component is used in several application areas: structural materials, power generation, soil amendment and environmental remediation. This scenario will allow a smooth transition from the current hydrocarbon-based economy to a hydrogen–carbon economy as a half-way point to the ultimate hydrogen-from-renewables economy of the future.     

CO2 chemical conversion to useful products: An engineering insight to the latest advances toward sustainability

In the fossil‐fuel‐based economies, current remedies for the CO₂ reduction from large‐scale energy consumers (e.g. power stations and cement works) mainly rely on carbon capture and storage, having three proposed generic solutions: post‐combustion capture, pre‐combustion capture, and oxy fuel combustion. All the aforementioned approaches are based on various physical and chemical phenomena including absorption, adsorption, and cryogenic capture of CO₂. The purified carbon dioxide is sent for the physical storage options afterwards, using the earth as a gigantic reservoir with unknown long‐term environmental impacts as well as possible hazards associated with that. Consequently, the ultimate solution for the CO₂ sequestration is the chemical transformation of this stable molecule to useful products such as fuels (through, for example, Fischer–Tropsch chemistry) or polymers (through successive copolymerization and chain growth). This sustainably reduces carbon emissions, taking full advantage of CO₂‐derived chemical commodities, so‐called carbon capture and conversion. Nevertheless, the surface chemistry of CO₂ reduction is a challenge due to the presence of large energy barriers, requiring noticeable catalysis. This work aims to review the most recent advances in this concept selectively (CO₂ conversion to fuels and CO₂ copolymerization) with chemical engineering approach in terms of both materials and process design. Some of the most promising studies are expanded in detail, concluding with the necessity of subsidizing more research on CO₂ conversion technologies considering the growing global concerns on carbon management. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hydrogen production through renewable and non-renewable energy processes and their impact on climate change

The urbanization and increase in the human population has significantly influenced the global energy demands. The utilization of non-renewable fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure involves air pollution, global warming due to CO₂ emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, acid rains, diminishing energy resources, and environmental degradation leading to climate change due to global warming. These factors demand the exploration of alternative energy sources based on renewable sources. Hydrogen, an efficient energy carrier, has emerged as an alternative fuel to meet energy demands and green hydrogen production with zero carbon emission has gained scientific attraction in recent years. This review is focused on the production of hydrogen from renewable sources such as biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, and algae and conventional non-renewable sources including natural gas, coal, nuclear and thermochemical processes. Moreover, the cost analysis for hydrogen production from each source of energy is discussed. Finally, the impact of these hydrogen production processes on the environment and their implications are summarized.     

Combining renewable sources towards negative carbon emission hydrogen

Multi-energy systems that combine different energy sources and carriers to improve the overall technical, economic, and environmental performance can boost the energy transition. In this paper we posit an innovative multi-energy system for green hydrogen production that achieves negative carbon emissions by combining bio-fuel membrane-integrated steam reforming and renewable electricity electrolysis. The system produces green hydrogen and carbon dioxide, both at high purity. We use thermo-chemical models to determine the system performance and optimal working parameters. Specifically, we focus on its ability to achieve negative carbon emissions.The results show that in optimal operating conditions the system can capture up to 14.1 g of CO₂ per MJ of stored hydrogen and achieves up to 70% storage efficiency. Therefore, we prove that a multi-energy system may reach the same efficiency of an average electrolyzer while implementing carbon capture. In the same optimal operating conditions the system converts 7.8 kg of biogas in 1 kg of hydrogen using 3.2 kg of oxygen coming from the production of 6.4 kg of hydrogen through the electrolyzer. With such ratios we estimate that the conversion of all the biogas produced in Europe with our system, could result in the installation of additional dedicated 800 GWp - 1280 GWp of photovoltaic power, or of 266 GWp - 532 GWp of wind power, without affecting the distribution grid and covering yearly the 45% of the worldwide hydrogen demand while removing from the atmosphere more than 2% of the European carbon dioxide emissions.     

Nuclear and clean coal technology options for sustainable development in India

Due to the growing energy needs along with increasing concerns towards control of greenhouse gas emissions, most developing countries are under pressure to find alternative methods for energy conversion and policies to make these technologies economically viable. Most of the energy is produced from fossil fuel in India which is not a sustainable source of energy. In this paper Indian power sector has been examined by using MARKAL model for introduction of clean coal and advanced nuclear technologies with implementation of energy conservation potential. The result shows that application of clean technologies gives energy security but not significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. When clean technologies apply with energy conservation a huge amount of CO₂ can be reduced and also economically viable. Three scenarios including base case scenario have been developed to estimate the resource allocations and CO₂ mitigation. The clean technologies with maximum savings potential shows 70% CO₂ reduction in the year 2045.     

CO2 Emissions Mitigation Potential of Some Renewable Energy Technologies in India

Abstract

An attempt to develop simple frameworks for quantification of the CO₂ emissions mitigation potential of renewable energy technologies for domestic water heating, domestic lighting, water pumping, and crop drying has been made. The annual useful energy provided by each of the renewable energy technology and the annual saving of fuel/electricity have been estimated. The gross annual amount of CO₂ emissions mitigation, as well as net amount of annual CO₂ emissions mitigation potential of each technology, is estimated by taking into account the CO₂ emissions embodied in the device.     

System study of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture in bio-based motor fuel production

A number of different technologies for producing renewable motor fuels have been studied; some effects of applying carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture to the production of renewable motor fuels are described in this paper. Some of the technologies studied are well suited for CO₂ capture. However, it is shown that the advantages with CO₂ capture for these technologies are not enough to offset their shortcomings described in previous studies, which show that the largest CO₂ reduction from biomass in Sweden may be achieved by producing fuel pellets for coal substitution or using the biomass in combined heat and power plants. A conclusion of the present paper is that even with CO₂ capture added to the respective technology, it is inefficient to use renewable resources for motor fuel production if the aim is to achieve as high CO₂ emission reduction as possible per input of biomass. Therefore, the large Swedish subsidies of the production of motor fuels appear sub-optimal, also when the possibility of CO₂ capture is considered. Nevertheless, incorporating CO₂ capture in the production of renewable motor fuels from biomass might be a cost-effective way of reducing CO₂ emissions.     

Modeling China’s energy dilemma: conflicts among energy saving, energy security, and CO2 mitigation

This study analyzes China’s future energy scenarios stretching until 2050 under different policy portfolios of energy security (e.g., oil import dependency) and CO₂ emissions control. Four scenarios, namely, ① business as usual, ② strong oil import dependency (OID) control, ③ strong CO₂ emissions control, and ④ twofold emphasis on OID and CO₂ emissions control, are designed. The results reveal the existence of conflicts among China’s multiple objectives, particularly energy saving, energy security, and CO₂ mitigation. Based on the analysis, an improvement in China’s efficiency in fossil energy conversion and the promotion of the utilization of non-fossil energy such as nuclear, wind, and hydro energy are recommended. The over-development of coal-derived fuels should also be avoided because of incremental coal consumption and CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, research on and development of carbon capture and storage technologies should be promoted, while the energy efficiency loss caused by integrating these technologies into energy systems should be reduced in view of the high possibility of stricter standards for CO₂ emissions in the future.     

Modeling China’s energy dilemma: conflicts among energy saving,energy security,and CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> mitigation

This study analyzes China’s future energy scenarios stretching until 2050 under different policy portfolios of energy security (e.g., oil import dependency) and CO₂ emissions control. Four scenarios, namely, ① business as usual, ② strong oil import dependency (OID) control, ③ strong CO₂ emissions control, and ④ twofold emphasis on OID and CO₂ emissions control, are designed. The results reveal the existence of conflicts among China’s multiple objectives, particularly energy saving, energy security, and CO₂ mitigation. Based on the analysis, an improvement in China’s efficiency in fossil energy conversion and the promotion of the utilization of non-fossil energy such as nuclear, wind, and hydro energy are recommended. The over-development of coal-derived fuels should also be avoided because of incremental coal consumption and CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, research on and development of carbon capture and storage technologies should be promoted, while the energy efficiency loss caused by integrating these technologies into energy systems should be reduced in view of the high possibility of stricter standards for CO₂ emissions in the future.     

Evaluation of geologic storage options of CO2: Applicability,cost, storage capacity and safety

CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere are increasing continually, which are mainly originated from burning of fossil fuels. The fossil fuels are expected to remain a major component of the world’s energy supply in the near future, because of their inherent advantages. Therefore, various measures have to be considered to reduce anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Increasing the efficiency of energy usage and/or developing lower carbon or non-carbon energies to replace high carbon fuels may bring the result of the reduction of the accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere. The other alternative to reduce CO₂ concentrations in atmosphere include gaseous storage in various deep geological formations, liquid storage in the ocean, and solid storage by reaction of CO₂ with metal oxides to produce stable carbonates. In this article, the geological storage options of CO₂ are examined. They are discussed in terms of applicability, cost, storage capacity and safety.     

Sequestration of fermentation CO2 from ethanol production

Renewable energy from biomass is conventionally thought to avoid emissions of the greenhouse gas CO₂ by replacing the roles of fossil fuels. We show that if the off-gases produced during the fermentation of sugars to fuel–ethanol were captured and, for example, injected deep underground to keep them from the atmosphere, then the production of ethanol could lead to the net removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere in addition to avoiding gasoline-related CO₂ emissions by using the ethanol as a transportation fuel. We give estimates of net CO₂ emissions for current systems for the production of fuel–ethanol, these systems modified to sequester fermentation CO₂, and gasoline-related CO₂ emission offsets. We consider future developments that might affect the scope and economic feasibility of the sequestration of fermentation CO₂.