Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration

Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2019-04-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309484529

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.

Understanding and Analysis: The California Air Resources Board Forest Offset Protocol

Understanding and Analysis: The California Air Resources Board Forest Offset Protocol
Author: Eric Marland
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2017-03-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319524348

This book is a product of the initial phase of a broader study evaluating the voluntary and regulatory compliance protocols that are used to account for the contributions of forests in U.S.-based greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation programs. The research presented here is particularly concerned with these protocols’ use of the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to describe forest conditions, ownership, and management scenarios, and is oriented towards providing regulators and other interested parties with an objective comparison of the options, uncertainties, and opportunities available to offset GHG emissions through forest management. Chapters focus on the protocols for recognizing forest carbon offsets in the California carbon cap-and-trade program, as described in the Compliance Offset Protocol; U.S. Forest Projects (California Air Resources Board, 2011). Readers will discover the protocols used for quantifying the offset of GHG emissions through forest-related project activity. As such, its scope includes a review of the current methods used in voluntary and compliance forest protocols, an evaluation of the metrics used to assign baselines and determine additionality in the forest offset protocols, an examination of key quantitative and qualitative components and assumptions, and a discussion of opportunities for modifying forest offset protocols, in light of the rapidly changing GHG-related policy and regulatory environment. Finally, the report also discusses accounting and policy issues that create potential barriers to participation in the California cap-and-trade program, and overall programmatic additionality in addressing the needs of a mitigation strategy.

Climate Intervention

Climate Intervention
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2015-06-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309305322

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.

Geologic Carbon Sequestration

Geologic Carbon Sequestration
Author: V. Vishal
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-05-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319270192

This exclusive compilation written by eminent experts from more than ten countries, outlines the processes and methods for geologic sequestration in different sinks. It discusses and highlights the details of individual storage types, including recent advances in the science and technology of carbon storage. The topic is of immense interest to geoscientists, reservoir engineers, environmentalists and researchers from the scientific and industrial communities working on the methodologies for carbon dioxide storage. Increasing concentrations of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are often held responsible for the rising temperature of the globe. Geologic sequestration prevents atmospheric release of the waste greenhouse gases by storing them underground for geologically significant periods of time. The book addresses the need for an understanding of carbon reservoir characteristics and behavior. Other book volumes on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) attempt to cover the entire process of CCUS, but the topic of geologic sequestration is not discussed in detail. This book focuses on the recent trends and up-to-date information on different storage rock types, ranging from deep saline aquifers to coal to basaltic formations.

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation
Author: Peter Styring
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2014-09-13
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0444627480

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

Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration and Deployment in the People's Republic of China

Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration and Deployment in the People's Republic of China
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2015-11-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9292570439

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is taking concerted efforts and making large investments to peak out its carbon dioxide emissions around 2030. While current efforts are prioritizing accelerated energy efficiency and rapid expansion of renewables and nuclear in the energy mix, the fossil fuel related carbon dioxide emissions are still expected to rise even under a "new normal" growth strategies in the PRC. This brings in renewed emphasis on carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is currently the only near-commercial technologies to make deep cuts (up to 90%) in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel related power plants and industries. This report draws on relevant technical assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB), consultants' reports, and the work of ADB staff to assess the potential, the barriers and the challenges in demonstrating and deploying CCS in the PRC. It identifies unique low cost opportunities, recommends a gradual two phase approach to CCS deployment in the PRC and, provides complementary suite of policy actions to enable it.

The California Nitrogen Assessment

The California Nitrogen Assessment
Author: Thomas P. Tomich
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0520962230

Nitrogen is indispensable to all life on Earth. However, humans now dominate the nitrogen cycle, and nitrogen emissions from human activity have real costs: water and air pollution, climate change, and detrimental effects on human health, biodiversity, and natural habitats. Too little nitrogen limits ecosystem processes, while too much nitrogen transforms ecosystems profoundly. The California Nitrogen Assessment is the first comprehensive account of nitrogen flows, practices, and policies for California, encompassing all nitrogen flows—not just those associated with agriculture—and their impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing. How California handles nitrogen issues will be of interest nationally and internationally, and the goal of the assessment is to link science with action and to produce information that affects both future policy and solutions for addressing nitrogen pollution. This book also provides a model for application of integrated ecosystem assessment methods at regional and state (subnational) levels.

Ecosystems of California

Ecosystems of California
Author: Harold Mooney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 1008
Release: 2016-01-19
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0520278801

This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.