Piers Forster and Debbie Rosen at the University of Leeds and Robin Lamboll and Joeri Rogelj at Imperial College London, writing for Carbon Brief, look at the carbon budget estimates of the Global Carbon Project and the IPCC, the methodology and the inevitable uncertainties. They compare it to their own latest report from the CONSTRAIN research project. Where the GCP and the IPCC estimate nine years left of carbon emissions at current emission … [Read more...]
Turning waste biomass into clean fuel: cheap, portable equipment, cuts emissions, earns income for rural poor
The burning of biomass accounts for 10% of primary energy used worldwide: wood, peat, animal dung, corn stalks, rice husks, hay, straw, and other agricultural waste. Billions of people, mainly in remote and poorer regions, rely on such fuels for cooking, heating, and other household needs. But itâs a major source of emissions as well as pollution. And, annually, an estimated $120bn worth of crop and forest residues are burned out in the open … [Read more...]
Event Summary: âCHINA: Carbon Neutral by 2060 â The Future of Gasâ
Here are the written highlights of our 2-day 4-session workshop âCHINA: Carbon Neutral by 2060 â The Future of Gasâ, compiled by Helena Uhde at ECECP. Here you can quickly see the main points made by our expert panellists. Global events have made gas the hottest of issues, and the implications for both Europe and China are strongly reflected in all the sessions. The four session topics were Security of Supply, CCUS for the Gas Sector, Competitive … [Read more...]
Electrochemical CO2 removal: efficient, cheaper, first industrial client
Leda Zimmerman at MIT describes a method of removing CO2 electrochemically, now being taken forward by MIT spin-off company Verdox. Electrodes are coated with polyanthraquinone. When it is charged, CO2 sticks to it. When itâs time to store it away, the charge is reversed and the gas is expelled as a pure stream of CO2. The technology works in a wide range of CO2 concentrations, from the 20% or higher found in cement and steel industry exhaust … [Read more...]
Carbon Capture is a risky decarbonisation pathway: 13 flagship projects reviewed
The debate around the effectiveness of carbon capture (you can register now for our CCUS session on Wednesday at 10.45 - Editor) has led to polarising views. Although the first implementations began 50 years ago, serious efforts to capture large volumes cost-effectively are in their infancy and unproven at scale. Is it, given time and support, a solution to excess emissions worldwide? Or is it a distraction that will allow fossils to be used yet … [Read more...]
Modelling green Ammonia and Methanol in 2050. It will be expensive
Schalk Cloete starts by explaining that it is unrealistic to expect clean electrification to carry the main burden of energy supply. Even a fast roll out will be constrained by a range of infrastructure and cost limitations. Hence our continued dependence on fuels, with their high energy density and ease of transport. Those fuels will have to be made clean, so he summarises his co-authored papers that model the cost of green and blue ammonia and … [Read more...]
A role for Coal? Low-cost, negative emissions Blue Hydrogen from âMAWGSâ Coal/Biomass co-gasification
Schalk Cloete summarises his co-authored study that explains how to make hydrogen at unbeatably low prices from coal/biomass co-gasification. Though the âblueâ hydrogen process creates CO2, the self-contained plant using a membrane-assisted water-gas shift (MAWGS) reactor means 100% is captured easily. Better still, the use of biomass means the plant achieves negative emissions. The overall efficiency of the process is a very impressive 69%. The … [Read more...]
Engineered soil microbe can convert CO2 20 times faster than natural photosynthesis
New research led by the U.S. Department of Energyâs SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Germany has shown how a bacterial enzyme found in the soil can be made to convert carbon dioxide into carbon compounds 20 times faster than plant enzymes do during natural photosynthesis. As Glennda Chui at Stanford University explains, itâs very early days but could open a door to artificially … [Read more...]
Event Summary: âCHINA: Carbon Neutral by 2060 â Innovationâ
Here are the highlights of our 2-day 4-session workshop âCHINA: Carbon Neutral by 2060 - Innovationâ, compiled by Sara Stefanini. Itâs a quick and efficient way for readers to see the main points made by our expert panellists. Held at the end of May, it was the fourth of our EU-China workshops since the first was held in November 2020, produced for the EU China Energy Cooperation Platform (ECECP). As always, leading speakers from the EU, major … [Read more...]
Biologically produced Ethylene for plastics can become a carbon capture leader
Ethylene is a key component of the worldâs vast appetite for plastics. But itâs normally made using fossils as a feedstock, and is energy-intensive to produce. So the chemicals industry has long sought a way to biologically manufacture ethylene. It would be a double-win for clean energy: it would capture CO2 and displace the fossil-based feedstocks. Connor OâNeil at NREL describes new research that makes ethylene in a âone-stepâ process fuelled … [Read more...]
Worldâs biggest Carbon Capture project: Shute Creekâs âsell or ventâ business model isnât working
ExxonMobilâs Shute Creek CCUS facility is the worldâs largest carbon capture project. But since its launch in the 1980s half of that CO2 has been vented into the atmosphere, with most of the rest sold for pumping it underground to push out more oil from depleted wells (called Enhanced Oil Recovery). Only 3% has been sequestered underground, explain Bruce Robertson and Milad Mousavian at IEEFA, following their study based on publicly available … [Read more...]
Russia-Ukraine: Support for U.S. Oil & Gas producers must tie them to low-emissions investments
Like many countries, the U.S. is set to raise oil and gas production to compensate for cuts in Russian imports consequent to the war in Ukraine. The danger is that short-term solutions to sky rocketing fossil fuel prices will take precedence over climate targets. But Ben Cahill at CSIS explains how this is an opportunity for the Biden administration to give support to fossil energy producers with one hand and extract solid commitments on … [Read more...]
Reducing Europeâs dependence on Russian Oil and Gas: immediate, short and long term strategy
Atlantic Council Global Energy Center experts and associates offer their template for drastically reducing Europeâs dependence on Russian oil and gas. Itâs broken down into immediate, short (one to three years) and long term (beyond three years) actions. Itâs wide-ranging and comprehensive. Some actions are already in play, including maximising gas storage, ready for next winter. Some are the ramping up of existing plans (clean energy, … [Read more...]
Converting captured CO2 directly into fuels could get simpler, cheaper
Converting captured CO2 directly into fuels (or other products) at scale seems an effective way to mitigate emissions. But most of the conversion methods, including electrochemical, thermocatalytic, photothermal, or photochemical processes, have not proved very effective. David Chandler at MIT describes how researchers there have identified the main stumbling block and found a very simple solution. Basically, at the molecular level, the contact … [Read more...]
Energy Post Quiz 2021: ANSWERS
Hope you all had fun with the Energy Post Quiz, published before the Christmas break. Here are the answers. There are ten questions, both entertaining and insightful. The answers could all be found in articles that appeared here during 2021, and we give you the links to them. During 2021 Energy Post had another strong year in terms of number of debates hosted, event attendance, and readership for our articles: our readership grew by … [Read more...]
