Energy and Electricity - Introduction to Carbon Capture and Sequestration - page 22

Table 1.3.1 Comparison of CO 2 production and the production of chemicals

Estimated USA production Estimated global production

GWe-yr at
90%
capture

GWe-yr
at 90%
capture

Mt Gmol Mt Gmol

1 Sulfuric acid 38.7 394 2.1 199.9 1879 10.0

2 Nitrogen 32.5 1159 6.2 139.6 4595 24.5

3 Ethylene 25.0 781 4.2 112.6 3243 17.3

4 Oxygen 23.3 829 4.4 100.0 3287 17.5

5 Lime 19.4 347 1.8 283.0 4653 24.8

6 Polyethylene 17.0 530 2.8 60.0 1729 9.2

7 Propylene 15.3 354 1.9 53.0 1134 6.0

8 Ammonia 13.9 818 4.4 153.9 8332 44.3

9 Chlorine 12.0 169 0.9 61.2 795 4.2

10 Phosphoric

acid

11.4 116 0.6 22.0 207 1.1

... ...

50 Nylon 1.9 8 0.0 2.3 8 0.0

Total 419 8,681 46 2,412 48,385 257

2009 coal-fired
generation
GWe-yr

200 >1000

Approximate CO 2
emissions

6,000 136,000 31,000 750,000

Approximate production of world's top 50 chemicals in 2009 compared with CO 2 emis-
sions. The column GWe-yr at 90% capture indicates how much total energy can be
generated per year by capturing 90% of the CO 2 and converting it all to Dreamium using
the particular chemical. Data from Bhown and Freeman [1.12].

mitigation will saturate any market and deplete any supply. We will simply
produce too much! Actually, there are only two processes that operate
on the same scale as CO 2 : water treatment and energy .
As an altemative, one could envision converting the CO 2 back into
fuel. However, Figure 1.3.1 shows that converting CO 2 into carbon costs