A Response to Climate Change

Deepwater Horizon - Some Considerations

It is more than six weeks since the Deepwater blowout and notwithstanding the truly sad pictures of birds covered in oil, loss (unseen) of marine life and serious environmental damage, I think it important that people should reflect a little more on how society's demand for oil (and not just BP's) have brought this disaster upon the Gulf.

Some Points for Copenhagen

Here is a list of some topics that I feel should be pursued whilst the diplomats continue to negotiate a climate change treaty in Copenhagen this December. These are practical measures that would build technical confidence and social understanding in anticipation of the time when an agreement between the different interests can be concluded. I would not expect this to occur much before 2011.

Combustion of Coal in China

Data collated and published by organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and British Petroleum (BP) show that China is the World's largest producer of coal, amounting to 2.7 billion metric tonnes in 2008 and accounting for some 40% of total global output. Chinese coal also has a high sulphur content (between 1 and 5%) and there is limited capacity in the regions where it is mined to clean the fuel by water wash prior to transport.

The Visualisation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

A number of organisations and individuals are using interactive maps and web casts to visualise the emissions of carbon dioxide to great effect. The ones presented here show the results from two US endeavours: Purdue University's Vulcan Project and NatCarb.org.

The Cost of Abating Greenhouse Gases

The consultants McKinsey & Co have produced a number of reports that analyse the life cycle cost effectiveness and capital investment required for a wide range of technologies and practices capable of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases.

US Power Plant Emissions and CO2 Pipelines

Here are a couple of maps showing the location of power plants in the United States, the amount of carbon dioxide they emit and details of a network of pipelines that is currently used to transport carbon dioxide (in a liquefied state) to oil fields to enhance the recovery of crude.  

EU Directive for the Geological Storage of CO2

The outlines of a future legal framework for a new European Union (EU) directive on carbon storage are presented in the following paper by the German consultancy Eggers Malmendier. The paper points out that as the law currently stands in Europe, carbon dioxide cannot be stored in saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas reservoirs. For now, the only permissible option is to seek permission to dispose / utilise the gas as part of an enhanced oil or hydrocarbon gas recovery (EOR/EGR) project.

An EU Infrastructure to Store Carbon Dioxide

Initiatives to develop the technology of carbon capture will necessitate the deployment of an infrastructure to transport and store the recovered carbon dioxide. Early concepts of how this might be implemented in Europe are outlined in a proposal for a EU demonstration programme by the Zero Emissions from Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) team and in an economic assessment of carbon capture and storage options prepared by McKinsey & Co.

UK Roadmap to a Lower Carbon Economy

The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has recently published a plan of how it sees the country transitioning to a low carbon economy. Five main sectors are covered:

UK Carbon Capture & Storage Demonstrator

The UK's Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) will shortly announce the winner of a competition to demonstrate the feasibility of capturing and storing carbon emissions from a coal fired power plant. Funding for one unit which is to capture carbon dioxide from the effluent gases (so-called post combustion) and to compress and store the recovered CO₂ will be awarded to a consortium led by one of the following three companies:

Techniques for Measuring Emissions

There appear to be two main techniques that can be used to determine the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted by a combustion source. These are:

• Direct measurement of the exhaust gases.
• Indirect computation based on the amount of fuel consumed, its calorific value and estimating the efficiency of the combustion process using assigned emissions and oxidation factors.

Direct techniques rely on continuous emissions monitoring (CEM) to measure the amounts of gas passing to the atmosphere. Such systems and their data logging facilities are well proven, but traditionally have been used to monitor the emissions of trace contaminants such as sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and particulates, rather than the bulk discharge of carbon dioxide. A considerable body of clean air legislation has been drawn up by regulators across the World (both national and regional) and these controls set the performance standards that such equipment is required to meet. For examples, consult the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 40 - Protection of the Environment, Chapter 1 Part 60 and Part 75.

Indirect computational techniques are cheaper, less specialist and require less maintenance than CEM equipment. Examples of methodologies that can be used to compute the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the combustion of a fuel can be located via the following web links:

• Commission of the European Community : guidelines for the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions (MRG)
• Australian Dept of Climate Change : National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors
• Standards and calculation tools on the GHG Protocol Initiative site.
• UK's EEMS. NB: This site directs you to the DTI’s portal and back again !!

A reluctance by industry to change from the current system of manual reporting seems to be based on a perception that CEM type metering must be used. This may be the case for the very largest emitters, but for many smaller installations it should be perfectly reasonable to use the indirect / computational approach.