Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CO
2
emissions doubled between 1971 and 2009.
11
In 2005, for the irst
time, CO
2
emissions in non-OECD nations in aggregate exceeded CO
2
emissions from OECD nations. Since then, CO
2
emissions from non-OECD
nations have risen to the point where, in 2009, they exceeded aggregate
CO
2
emissions from OECD nations by 32%. his is troubling given that
most of the non-OECD nations are not Annex I nations under the Kyoto
Protocol, and as such have no formal international obligations to reduce
GHG emissions to meet agreed upon targets.
Looking forward, according to the International Energy Agency`s (IEA)
World Energy Outlook 2010
, global CO
2
emissions associated with fossil fuel
combustion are expected to reach 35.4 billion tons by 2035.
12
his represents
a 22% increase over 2009 levels and produces an overall GHG emissions port-
folio, which equates with emissions projected under the IPCC AR4's worst-case
scenario that projected an average global temperature rise of between 2.4°C and
6.4°C by 2100. hus, despite indications that CO
2
emission reductions of up to
80% are needed to abate the worst impacts of global warming,
13
CO
2
emission
trends indicate that emissions will increase rather than decrease.
It is notable that a great deal of global interest has arisen regarding the
prospects of carbon capture and sequestration technology (CCS technol-
ogy). he premise behind CCS technology is to capture CO
2
emissions from
a point source (i.e., a coal-ired power plant) and then store the emissions
either aquatically (deep sea injection), chemically (biological absorption), or
geologically (in natural geological storage chambers)—thereby preventing
CO
2
from dispersing directly into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the vol-
ume of CO
2
that must be sequestered each year to abate global warming is of
such magnitude that the management of captured CO
2
presents economic,
ecological, and logistical hurdles, thereby rendering discussions about how
to safely sequester such volumes to be moot.
Geological CCS, as it stands today, requires underground injection of
CO
2
, often in a supercritical state.
14
his generates a lot of eluent. Just
how much? Stanford University's David Victor estimates that if the CO
2
generated from all the coal-ired power plants in the United States were
stored geologically at pressures typical for injection, approximately 50 mil-
lion barrels per day of CO
2
infused luid would be generated.
15
his volume is
over three times greater than the daily oil production in the United States.
16
Globally, over 85 million barrels of oil per day are distributed by a network
that has taken decades to create.
17
Accordingly, not only would enormous
distribution networks be required to transport the eluent associated
with CCS technology, the potential for environmental disaster caused by
injecting so much eluent into geological or aquatic storage sites is almost
