1 / 6

Two environmental Problems Caused by Burning Fossil Fuels

Two environmental Problems Caused by Burning Fossil Fuels. Pollution Premature deaths (~ ten years loss of life) caused by air pollution each year (WHO 2007): Globally - 2 million, China 650,000, India - 530,000, USA - 41,000

josephine-fischer
Download Presentation

Two environmental Problems Caused by Burning Fossil Fuels

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Two environmental Problems Caused by Burning Fossil Fuels • Pollution • Premature deaths (~ ten years loss of life) caused by air pollution each year (WHO 2007): Globally - 2 million, China 650,000, India - 530,000, USA - 41,000 • Chernobyl killed 57 people directly and (according to United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) < 4,0000 people from long-term effects, but 2004 official statistics: 6,027 deaths from coal mining accidents in China (real number believed to be much more), 28 deaths in the USA One modern 1 GW coal power station with European population density kills 300 people/year → 4,000 people in ~ 13 years [Annual deaths from: indoor cooking ~ 1.5 M (0.3 M coal + 1.3 M biomass) malaria ~ 1.2 M; TB ~ 1.6 M] 2) Climate Change Since there are so few alternatives, expect most of world's remaining fossil fuels will be burned on time scale less than several hundred years CO2 days in atmosphere Must try to capture and bury as much CO2 as possible

  2. Carbon Capture and Storage • In principle could capture CO2 from power stations (35% of total) and from some industrial plants (not from cars, domestic…) • Capture and storage - would add ~ $2c/kWh to cost for gas; more for coal - in both casesmuch more initially • Storage - could (when location appropriate) be in depleted gas fields, depleted oil fields, deep saline aquifers • Issues are safety and cost (capture typically reduces efficiency by 10 percentage points, e.g. 46% → 37%, 41% → 32%,..), and how to count for Carbon credits • With current technology: capture, transmission and storage would ~ double generation cost for coal

  3. After capture, compress (>70 atmos → liquid) transmit and store (>700m):

  4. Conclusions on Carbon Capture and Storage • Mandatory if feasible and the world is serious about climate change- big potentialifsaline aquifers OK (said to be plenty in China and India) • Large scale demonstration very important • - First end-to-end CCS power station just opened in N Germany (30MW oxy-fuel add–on → steam to turbines in existing 1 GW power station) • - EU Zero Emissions Power strategy proposes 12 demonstration plants (want many: different technologies & conditions) by 2015: needed to develop/choose technologies, and drive down cost, if there is going to be significant deployment by 2030 • Meanwhile should make all plants ‘capture ready (post-combustion or oxy-fuel) • It will require a floor for the price of carbon

More Related