Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration

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Climate Change andCarbon Sequestration
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Utah-Farnham DomeCarbon Sequestration Project
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Global Warming is unequivocal and carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere commits the world to
sea levels rising an average of 4.6 feet. . If
unchecked, global warming will spread hunger and
disease, put further stress on water resources,
cause fiercer storms and more frequent droughts,
and could drive up to 70 percent of plant and
animal species to extinction Salt Lake
Tribune, November 18, 2007
If this carbon sequestration project succeeds,
it would be like stuffing the climate change
genie back into the bottle. The Salt Lake
Tribune, November 16, 2007
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Current Issues
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Critical Questions

• Look behind the headlines!
• What do we know that we are not using?
• What are the impediments to implementation?
• What is the energy budget (energy cost)?
• What are the unintended consequences?
• Can we plan ahead?

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We Are in an Energy Crisis!

• Liquid fuels close to becoming scarce
• Global warming is real
• Third-world populations are soaring
• Issues are complex and interrelated we are
  running low on oil to fuel our cars, but not
  coal, which fires our power plants. But coal is
  a major contributor to global warming

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What me worry?

• Well make gasoline (ethanol) out of corn
• Weve got 3 trillion bbl of oil in 400 billion
  tons in oil shale
• We will burn hydrogen its completely clean
• CO2 causing global warming? Well just pump it
  underground. Carbon Sequestration

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Whats the ProblemWith These Solutions?

• All the planning is on the supply side
• Most of it is wishful thinking, or far more
  complex than presented

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Population and Lifestyleare the Drivers

• In 10 minutes (during this presentation), 60
  babies will be born in the US
• 244 in China
• 351 in India

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Climate Change (Global Warming)
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Things That Affect Global Temperatures

• Orbital variations
• Solar output
• Land coverage
• Aerosols reflective and absorptive
• Greenhouse gasses
• CO2
• Methane
• Water vapor
• Chlorofluorocarbons
• NOx, O3

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Greenhouse Gasses

• Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere absorb more
  heat radiation than they allow to escape into
  space.

1.6 watts per m2 added since 1850
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The Carbon Blanket Getting Thicker Every Year
Pre-industrial 280 PPM Today 384 PPM 2050 ??
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Is It Real?

• 400,000 year record of temperatures preserved in
  Antarctic ice sheet
• Paleodata confirm effect of solar and orbital
  variation
• Computer modeling shows close agreement with
  observed data
• There is no doubt that todays climate change is
  not a normal cycle, and that it is anthropogenic

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Is It Anthropogenic?
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Is It Anthropogenic?
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Is It Anthropogenic?
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David Chapman
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Clear Impacts 1º F degree warming
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Why Is It Bad?

• Flooded coastal cities
• Severe storms
• Droughts
• Wildfires
• Extinction of species
• Spread of disease
• Changes in ocean currents

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Kyoto Protocol

• Negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997
• Came into force on Feb 16, 2005, following
  ratification by Russia on Nov 18, 2004
• Commitment to reduce their emissions of CO2 and
  five other greenhouse gasses, and enables emisson
  trading

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Kyoto Protocol

• Emission reduction 5.2 compared to 1990, but
  compared to expected 2010 levels, this is a 29
  reduction
• National targets range from 8 reductions for the
  European Union and some others to 7 for the US,
  6 for Japan, 0 for Russia, and permitted
  increases of 8 for Australia and 10 for
  Iceland.
• 141 Countries have ratified Exceptions include
  USA, Australia

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CARBON SEQUESTRATION
CO2
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SEQUESTER 1 a to set apart SEGREGATE b
SECLUDE, WITHDRAW2 a to seize especially by a
writ of sequestration b to place (property) in
custody especially in sequestration3 to hold
(as a metallic ion) in solution usually by
inclusion in an appropriate coordination complex
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Carbon Sequestration refers to removing carbon
dioxide from industrial streams and storing it in
some fashion so as to mitigate the buildup of CO2
in the atmosphere.
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CO2 Storage

• Soils
• Other Biomass (forests)
• Polar Storage
• Shallow Ocean
• Deep Ocean
• Coal Beds
• Oil and Gas Fields

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Soils

• Carbon normally quickly released from soil
• Idea is to retain more than is given off
• Natural environments store more than agricultural
  environments
• Unplowed land stores more than plowed

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Polar Storage

• Ice caves
• Permafrost
• Potential for release with warming?

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Biomass

• Forest storage great, but not nearly enough
  capacity
• Algal growth ? Food and Fuel
• Ocean biomass ? Fertilization with nutrients
  stimulation with iron

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Deep Ocean

• CO2 has high solubility in cold water
• Can form hydrates
• Whats the energy budget?
• Will it affect sea life?
• Could we have a big burp?

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Deep Coal Beds

• A lot of surface area ? high storage
• Displaces methane for enhanced recovery (ECBMR)

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Oil and Gas Fields

• Is being practiced in some areas (Norway,
  offshore)
• Requires a lot of energy
• Can enhance oil recovery (EOR)

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Statoil Sleipner FieldNorwegian North Sea

• 2,800 tonnes daily CO2
• Storage in saline aquifer 1,000 meters below
  seabed
• Saves 110,000 per day in carbon tax
• Power plants would see 50 to 80 cost increase

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Issue - Leakage
One of the biggest challenges for the long term
will be finding ways to verify that any buried
carbon dioxide is staying put that is,
monitoring for leaks. If large amounts of the
greenhouse gas are buried in geologic formations,
enough small leaks over time could undo the
advantages of sequestration, he says.
Catastrophic levels are going to be easy to find
and really are improbable.
Scott Klara, product manager for the carbon
sequestration program in the U.S. Department of
Energys National Energy Technology Laboratory
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Farnham Dome Study
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Farnham Dome Study

• Dr. Brian J. McPherson, Department of Civil and
  Environmental Engineering USTAR
• Formed the Southwest Partnership on Carbon
  Sequestration (19 million in DOE funding), one
  of seven regional partnerships to evaluate the
  science and technology of storage of atmospheric
  carbon in underground geological formations and
  in surface soil and vegetation.
• Selected by the Department of Energys National
  Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to proceed to
  a deployment phase (67M over 10 years), which
  will involve injection of approximately 1,000,000
  tons of CO2 into a geological formation.
• The purpose is to assess the efficacy of
  geological CO2 storage and to evaluate this as an
  approach for reduction of greenhouse gases in the
  atmosphere.

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Issue Reservoir Capacity

• A 1000 MWe coal power plant emits 15 million
  metric tons/year
• Mass CO2 over 50 years 15 x 106 x 50 750 x
  106 mt 750 x 109 kg
• Density CO2 at gt 1000 m depth 700 kg/m3
• Volume CO2 M/D 750/700 x 109 m3 1 x 109
• Assume we can fill 10 of rock volume, needed
  volume 1 x 1010 m3
• So, for a reservoir 100 m thick, it would be
  10,000 meters (six miles) on a side

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Other Issues

• Net energy
• Cost
• Can it really make a difference?

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Questions

• What is the energy cost to sequester?
• Can secondary benefits be derived from
  sequestration processes?
• Is there potential for environmental damage from
  sequestration?
• Is there potential for long term release of CO2?
• Is conservation an alternative?

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Jacks ConclusionsYou are encouraged to form
your own!

• We are in for a real shortage of liquid fuels
  not just high cost, but potential unavailability,
  as well
• To meet skyrocketing demand, we are probably
  going to have to scrounge and burn all the
  fossil fuel we can get, as we bring on
  alternatives
• Global warming is real we need to plan

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Jacks ConclusionsYou are encouraged to form
your own!

• We need to plan for the effects of global warming
  while at the same time, reducing carbon emissions
  as much as possible
• Slowing the rate of CO2 increase may mitigate the
  negative effects
• Conservation will help fossil fuels last longer,
  softening the landing
• Lifestyle changes will be necessary that can only
  be accomplished by governments and leadership on
  a global scale

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Examples
United States CAFE Standards will have us
achieve by the year 2020 the same standards that
Europe has now.
Top Stories Island nations plan for rising seas,
mass migration Countries usually evacuate their
citizens because of war or a sudden and
catastrophic natural disaster. For the Pacific
island state of Kiribati, the climate change
disaster facing the nation is no less dramatic
but on a slower time scale and means preparing
its 100,000 inhabitants for lives in nations less
vulnerable to wild weather and rising seas.