Water Impacts of CO2 Emission Performance Standards for Fossil Fuel-fired Power Plants

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (20) ◽  
pp. 11769-11776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuchi Talati ◽  
Haibo Zhai ◽  
M. Granger Morgan
Author(s):  
Farshid Zabihian ◽  
Alan S. Fung

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) systems are technologies that can be used to reduce CO2 emissions by different industries where combustion is part of the process. A major problem of CCS system utilization in electricity generation industry is their high efficiency penalty in power plants. For different types of power plants fueled by oil, natural gas and coal, there are three main techniques that can be applied: • CO2 capture after combustion (post-combustion); • CO2 capture after concentration of flue gas by using pure oxygen in boilers and furnaces (oxy-fuel power plant); • CO2 capture before combustion (pre-combustion). More than 90% of electricity generation in Iran is based on fossil fuel power plants. Worldwide, electricity generation is responsible for 54% of GHG emissions. Thus, it is vital to reduce CO2 emission in fossil fuel-fired power plants. In this paper, it is shown that, by applying CO2 capture systems in power generation industry, very low CO2 emission intensity is possible but the energy and economic penalties are substantial. The analyses showed that for different technologies efficiency penalty could be as high as 25% and cost of electricity might increase by more than 65%. Two scenarios for Iranian electricity generation sector were investigated in this paper: installing CCS in the existing power plants with current technologies and replacing existing power plants by natural gas combined cycle plants equipped with CO2 capture system. The results revealed that the GHG intensity can be reduced from 610 to 79 gCO2eq/kWh in the first scenario and to 54 gCO2eq/kWh in the second scenario.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (07) ◽  
pp. 65-66
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper IPTC 21348, “The Color of Energy: The Competition To Be the Energy of the Future,” by Hon Chung Lau, National University of Singapore, prepared for the 2021 International Petroleum Technology Conference, held virtually 23 March–1 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2021 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. The author of the complete paper, for the purposes of this study, characterizes energies as brown, blue, or green. Brown energies are carbon dioxide (CO2)-emitting fossil fuels, such as gas, oil, or coal. Blue energies use carbon capture and storage (CCUS) technologies to remove the emitted CO2 from brown energies. Green energies are zero- or low-CO2-emitting renewable energies. By analyzing the CO2 intensity and levelized cost of energy of energy carriers of different colors, the author shows that renewable energies are best used in replacing fossil fuels in the power sector, where they have the greatest effect in reducing CO2 emission. Overview By 2017, only 11% of the world’s final consumption came from renewable energies, 85% came from fossil fuel, and 4% came from nuclear energy. Energy consumption can be divided into three sectors: power, transport, and thermal. At the time of writing, 26.4% of global power (electricity) consumption comes from renewable energies. In this sphere, renewable energies are making the most significant contribution in reducing CO2 emission. Forty-one percent of CO2 emission comes from electricity and heat, 21% from transport, and 21% from industry. Consequently, the key to global decarbonization is to decarbonize these three sectors. Green Energy Is Preferred Green energies consist of six major types: solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, hydroelectricity, geothermal, and biomass. If 1 kWh of electricity generated by renewable energy (with the exception of biomass) is used to replace 1 kWh of electricity generated by fossil fuel, the net CO2 savings will amount to 0.8, 0.6, and 0.4 kg for replacing coal, oil, and natural gas, respectively. However, if 1 kWh of renewable electricity is used to generate green hydrogen (H2), which is then used for heat generation in industry, it will yield roughly 0.8 kWh of thermal energy, which replaces the same amount of thermal energy by natural gas. This amounts to a CO2 savings of only 0.16 kg CO2/kWh. Consequently, renewable power has the highest CO2 savings effect if it is used to replace fossil fuel for power generation rather than to replace fossil fuel for heat generation. Decarbonizing the Power Sector The power sector is easiest to decarbonize. The three methods foreseen to decarbonize the power sector are nuclear power, blue electricity generated by fossil-fuel power plants equipped with CCUS, and green electricity produced by renewables. The use of nuclear power plants is a country-specific issue. The dual challenge of nuclear plant safety and nuclear waste storage is a key sustainability issue. Recently, interest has been renewed in the idea of increasing investment in nuclear energy for decarbonizing the power sector. It is noteworthy that the countries for whom more than a quarter of their power generation is provided by nuclear energy are all in Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5 Part A) ◽  
pp. 2879-2889
Author(s):  
Djordje Petrovic ◽  
Dalibor Pesic ◽  
Maja Petrovic ◽  
Radomir Mijailovic

Reducing CO2 emission is one of the major environmental challenges for transportation. One way to solve this problem is to replace old cars that use fossil fuels (petrol, diesel) with new electric cars. In this paper, the existing model for calculating well-to-wheels CO2 emission during the life cycle of the car (fossil fuel car and electric car) is upgraded. The developed model is used for comparing optimal lifetime and optimal car?s kilometers driven during a lifetime in the replacement process of a fossil fuel car with a new electric car. We find that reducing CO2 emission depends on the type of fossil fuel, and the weight of fossil fuel cars and electric cars. Changing petrol fossil fuel cars with lower weight electric cars have the greatest potential for reducing CO2 emission. However, the introduction of electric cars does not achieve a significant reduction of CO2 emission in countries where electricity is primarily produced in thermal power plants, i. e. in countries with a high emission factor of electricity production.


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