Climate Intervention

Climate Intervention PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-06-17

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 0309305322

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The signals are everywhere that our planet is experiencing significant climate change. It is clear that we need to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from our atmosphere if we want to avoid greatly increased risk of damage from climate change. Aggressively pursuing a program of emissions abatement or mitigation will show results over a timescale of many decades. How do we actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make a bigger difference more quickly? As one of a two-book report, this volume of Climate Intervention discusses CDR, the carbon dioxide removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere and sequestration of it in perpetuity. Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration introduces possible CDR approaches and then discusses them in depth. Land management practices, such as low-till agriculture, reforestation and afforestation, ocean iron fertilization, and land-and-ocean-based accelerated weathering, could amplify the rates of processes that are already occurring as part of the natural carbon cycle. Other CDR approaches, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration, direct air capture and sequestration, and traditional carbon capture and sequestration, seek to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and dispose of it by pumping it underground at high pressure. This book looks at the pros and cons of these options and estimates possible rates of removal and total amounts that might be removed via these methods. With whatever portfolio of technologies the transition is achieved, eliminating the carbon dioxide emissions from the global energy and transportation systems will pose an enormous technical, economic, and social challenge that will likely take decades of concerted effort to achieve. Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration will help to better understand the potential cost and performance of CDR strategies to inform debate and decision making as we work to stabilize and reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.

Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams Utilization

Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams Utilization PDF

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-02-22

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0309483360

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In the quest to mitigate the buildup of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, researchers and policymakers have increasingly turned their attention to techniques for capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, either from the locations where they are emitted or directly from the atmosphere. Once captured, these gases can be stored or put to use. While both carbon storage and carbon utilization have costs, utilization offers the opportunity to recover some of the cost and even generate economic value. While current carbon utilization projects operate at a relatively small scale, some estimates suggest the market for waste carbon-derived products could grow to hundreds of billions of dollars within a few decades, utilizing several thousand teragrams of waste carbon gases per year. Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams Utilization: Status and Research Needs assesses research and development needs relevant to understanding and improving the commercial viability of waste carbon utilization technologies and defines a research agenda to address key challenges. The report is intended to help inform decision making surrounding the development and deployment of waste carbon utilization technologies under a variety of circumstances, whether motivated by a goal to improve processes for making carbon-based products, to generate revenue, or to achieve environmental goals.

Managing Water Resources in the West Under Conditions of Climate Uncertainty

Managing Water Resources in the West Under Conditions of Climate Uncertainty PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1991-02-01

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0309046777

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The question of whether the earth's climate is changing in some significant human-induced way remains a matter of much debate. But the fact that climate is variable over time is well known. These two elements of climatic uncertainty affect water resources planning and management in the American West. Managing Water Resources in the West Under Conditions of Climate Uncertainty examines the scientific basis for predictions of climate change, the implications of climate uncertainty for water resources management, and the management options available for responding to climate variability and potential climate change.

Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration

Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration PDF

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-04-08

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 0309484529

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To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, "negative emissions technologies" (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the air will need to play a significant role in mitigating climate change. Unlike carbon capture and storage technologies that remove carbon dioxide emissions directly from large point sources such as coal power plants, NETs remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or enhance natural carbon sinks. Storing the carbon dioxide from NETs has the same impact on the atmosphere and climate as simultaneously preventing an equal amount of carbon dioxide from being emitted. Recent analyses found that deploying NETs may be less expensive and less disruptive than reducing some emissions, such as a substantial portion of agricultural and land-use emissions and some transportation emissions. In 2015, the National Academies published Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration, which described and initially assessed NETs and sequestration technologies. This report acknowledged the relative paucity of research on NETs and recommended development of a research agenda that covers all aspects of NETs from fundamental science to full-scale deployment. To address this need, Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda assesses the benefits, risks, and "sustainable scale potential" for NETs and sequestration. This report also defines the essential components of a research and development program, including its estimated costs and potential impact.

Valuing Climate Damages

Valuing Climate Damages PDF

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-06-23

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0309454204

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The social cost of carbon (SC-CO2) is an economic metric intended to provide a comprehensive estimate of the net damages - that is, the monetized value of the net impacts, both negative and positive - from the global climate change that results from a small (1-metric ton) increase in carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Under Executive Orders regarding regulatory impact analysis and as required by a court ruling, the U.S. government has since 2008 used estimates of the SC-CO2 in federal rulemakings to value the costs and benefits associated with changes in CO2 emissions. In 2010, the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) developed a methodology for estimating the SC-CO2 across a range of assumptions about future socioeconomic and physical earth systems. Valuing Climate Changes examines potential approaches, along with their relative merits and challenges, for a comprehensive update to the current methodology. This publication also recommends near- and longer-term research priorities to ensure that the SC- CO2 estimates reflect the best available science.

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation PDF

Author: Peter Styring

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2014-09-13

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0444627480

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Carbon Dioxide Utilisation: Closing the Carbon Cycle explores areas of application such as conversion to fuels, mineralization, conversion to polymers, and artificial photosynthesis as well as assesses the potential industrial suitability of the various processes. After an introduction to the thermodynamics, basic reactions, and physical chemistry of carbon dioxide, the book proceeds to examine current commercial and industrial processes, and the potential for carbon dioxide as a green and sustainable resource. While carbon dioxide is generally portrayed as a "bad" gas, a waste product, and a major contributor to global warming, a new branch of science is developing to convert this "bad" gas into useful products. This book explores the science behind converting CO2 into fuels for our cars and planes, and for use in plastics and foams for our homes and cars, pharmaceuticals, building materials, and many more useful products. Carbon dioxide utilization is a rapidly expanding area of research that holds a potential key to sustainable, petrochemical-free chemical production and energy integration. Accessible and balanced between chemistry, engineering, and industrial applications Informed by blue-sky thinking and realistic possibilities for future technology and applications Encompasses supply chain sustainability and economics, processes, and energy integration

Developments and Innovation in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Capture and Storage Technology

Developments and Innovation in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Capture and Storage Technology PDF

Author: M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2010-07-13

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 1845699580

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) is the one advanced technology that conventional power generation cannot do without. CCS technology reduces the carbon footprint of power plants by capturing, and storing the CO2 emissions from burning fossil-fuels and biomass. This volume provides a comprehensive reference on the state of the art research, development and demonstration of carbon storage and utilisation, covering all the storage options and their environmental impacts. It critically reviews geological, terrestrial and ocean sequestration, including enhanced oil and gas recovery, as well as other advanced concepts such as industrial utilisation, mineral carbonation, biofixation and photocatalytic reduction. Foreword written by Lord Oxburgh, Climate Science Peer Comprehensively examines the different methods of storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the various concepts for utilisation Reviews geological sequestration of CO2, including coverage of reservoir sealing and monitoring and modelling techniques used to verify geological sequestration of CO2

Climate Intervention

Climate Intervention PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-06-23

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0309314852

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The growing problem of changing environmental conditions caused by climate destabilization is well recognized as one of the defining issues of our time. The root problem is greenhouse gas emissions, and the fundamental solution is curbing those emissions. Climate geoengineering has often been considered to be a "last-ditch" response to climate change, to be used only if climate change damage should produce extreme hardship. Although the likelihood of eventually needing to resort to these efforts grows with every year of inaction on emissions control, there is a lack of information on these ways of potentially intervening in the climate system. As one of a two-book report, this volume of Climate Intervention discusses albedo modification - changing the fraction of incoming solar radiation that reaches the surface. This approach would deliberately modify the energy budget of Earth to produce a cooling designed to compensate for some of the effects of warming associated with greenhouse gas increases. The prospect of large-scale albedo modification raises political and governance issues at national and global levels, as well as ethical concerns. Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth discusses some of the social, political, and legal issues surrounding these proposed techniques. It is far easier to modify Earth's albedo than to determine whether it should be done or what the consequences might be of such an action. One serious concern is that such an action could be unilaterally undertaken by a small nation or smaller entity for its own benefit without international sanction and regardless of international consequences. Transparency in discussing this subject is critical. In the spirit of that transparency, Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth was based on peer-reviewed literature and the judgments of the authoring committee; no new research was done as part of this study and all data and information used are from entirely open sources. By helping to bring light to this topic area, this book will help leaders to be far more knowledgeable about the consequences of albedo modification approaches before they face a decision whether or not to use them.

The Hydrogen Economy

The Hydrogen Economy PDF

Author: National Academy of Engineering

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2004-09-05

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0309091632

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The announcement of a hydrogen fuel initiative in the President's 2003 State of the Union speech substantially increased interest in the potential for hydrogen to play a major role in the nation's long-term energy future. Prior to that event, DOE asked the National Research Council to examine key technical issues about the hydrogen economy to assist in the development of its hydrogen R&D program. Included in the assessment were the current state of technology; future cost estimates; CO2 emissions; distribution, storage, and end use considerations; and the DOE RD&D program. The report provides an assessment of hydrogen as a fuel in the nation's future energy economy and describes a number of important challenges that must be overcome if it is to make a major energy contribution. Topics covered include the hydrogen end-use technologies, transportation, hydrogen production technologies, and transition issues for hydrogen in vehicles.