Energy industry is at a crossroad. It must now find a new direction to address the climate issue while to continue to supply energy to the world. The options are very clear. It can find new ways and means to genuinely address some of the mistakes of the past by inventing new methods to address the problem irrespective of the cost involved because time is not in our favour. Alternatively, one can redirect the issue using new terminologies and jargons and temporarily buy some time till finding an alternative and lasting solution to the problem. The first option will take time and cost more, and the second option may not take time and cost less. It seems most of the companies are choosing the second alternative. But how?
Renewable energy is defined as “a source of energy that is available from the nature that can be constantly replenished”. This will guarantee the sustainability. But we are used to Carbon based fuels and technologies and therefore we also need a renewable Carbon that can substitute fossil fuels so that existing technologies for power and transportation can be used. Biomass is also derived from plants and animals like fossil fuels, but it is different in terms of time scale, and it can be replenished quickly unlike fossil fuels. It is basically made up of Carbon, Hydrogen and additionally oxygen, like fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas but free from sulphur. Therefore, one can use the same technology such as combustion, gasification and pyrolysis etc and convert a biomass into energy, chemicals and fuels while claiming them as “renewables”. It will require oxy-combustion and gasification methods and unfortunately usage of pure Oxygen will be inevitable.Therefore, both Carbon as well as Hydrogen derived from biomass becomes “Green” and “renewable”. In addition “Green Hydrogen” using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind by water electrolysis will help decarbonisation by capturing and converting CO2 emissions into a Syngas. It requires a steep fall in the cost of renewable electricity to less than $20/Mwh and Carbon emission to be taxed at least @ $250/Mt to discourage fossil industry. Once we establish green and renewable Carbon and Hydrogen then it is only a matter of generating a syngas, combination of Hydrogen and Carbon monoxide with various ratios to synthesis various chemicals including bio crude oil that leads to refineries to produce petrol, diesel and aviation fuels. We will be back into the game but with different brand called “Green and renewable”; it is “an old wine in a new bottle” Everybody is happy and politicians can now heave a sigh of relief and feel comfortable. One can also use “blue hydrogen’ as a mix to green hydrogen and synthesis various downstream chemicals such as Ammonia, urea etc.
Thus they can use them to decarbonise the fossil economy. In either way there is still an issue of CARBON EMISSION that needs to be addressed. They may claim biofuel as Carbon neutral, but it will not stop the increasing concentration of GHG into the atmosphere or climate change. Therefore Carbon tax will be inevitable. Bioenergy and renewable energy may increase the sustainability but will not address the issue of global warming and climate change. Nature does not discriminate between ‘bio-carbon’ and ‘fossil carbon’. Only “Carbon Recycling Technology” can address the problem of global warming and climate change. In our process of CRT we neither use “bio-Carbon” or “fossil Carbon from coal, oil and gas but CO2 derived from DIC (dissolved inorganic Carbon) from seawater.That is why the Hydrocarbon derived in our process is called Carbon negative fuel. Moreover it recycles the CO2 emission resulting from such hydrocarbon within the sCO2 (super critical CO2) power system with Zero CO2 emission.The simplest method for transport will be to to collect CO2 emission from all petrol and diesel engines in a liquid form using a retrofittable device in the vehicle and convert them in a centralised facility to Syngas using renewable Hydrogen .The syngas can be converted into renewable crude using F-T reaction hat can be processed in a refinery for recycling into petrol, diesel and aviation fuel so that we can eliminate technologies such as large batteries and Fuel cells. By this way we can ensure the CO2 level in the atmosphere is stabilised and existing infrastructures are utilised. The availability of biomass for a radical change will be an issue especially in Asia where growing population requires more land for agriculture and deforestation is a common problem. It is absolutely clear that the same old fossil industry will promote Hydrogen in a much bigger scale so that oil and gas industry will re-brand itself as “Green and Renewable” and continue to grow along with their CO2 emissions unabated.
Energy generation and usage is considered not only as a mark of progress of a nation but also security of a nation. That is why countries go to extraordinary distance to achieve such a security and everything else becomes secondary in the path of their goal. That is why countries with high oil and gas reserves enjoy good relationship and privileges with powerful nations of the world. Countries who do not have their own oil and gas reserves and who completely rely on import of oil and gas have no choice but maintain a good relationship with oil rich countries despite their difference in ideologies and policies. But with warming globe and changing climate the dependence on fossil fuels is fast becoming unsustainable and countries look for alternatives. It is good news for the whole world especially for nations who depend completely on import of oil and gas because they can develop their own renewable energy sources to lower their emissions. But there is one major difference. Countries who depend on import of oil and gas required to develop only an infrastructure to store and distribute oil and gas, But with renewable energy they have to develop an infrastructure to produce the hardware necessary to use alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal but also energy storage such as batteries. The warming globe and changing climate have become a grave threat to the plant earth and a threat to lives of entire future generations. It is the greatest challenge of the industrialized world. One can view this as threat or as an opportunity. But it is time to act irrespective of our views and we must act now.
It is an opportunity for scientists and engineers to view energy sources and their applications in a new perspective. It is an opportunity to understand how human activities affect our environment and how not to damage them but preserve them for our future generations while developing new alternatives. Humanity is just a part of a larger environment and any damage to planet earth is at our own peril. It is an ancient wisdom, but we neglected them. When an aboriginal of Australia said “we belong to earth and earth does not belong to us” we failed to listen to them. We(people) became bigger than They (environment).
In pursuit of a new energy source one must be extremely careful in examining Nature and how she operates so that we do not make the same mistakes of the past. As we develop renewable energy as a potential energy source of the future, we should be aware of the life cycle of such a system and their impact on environment. Renewable energy requires hardware that uses exotic metals, catalysts, polymers, new Carbon sources and glasses. As we switch to Carbon free economy, we should make sure that there are no emissions in developing renewable energy sources and if necessary impose Carbon tax on such emissions and, to develop recycling technologies to recycle that hardware safely and environmentally friendly manner. It is critically important issue as we move forward. According to an article published in Chemical engineering News
“The potential quantities of waste are enormous. By 2025, waste batteries removed from electric vehicles will total 95 Giga watt hours, according to an estimate by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That pile will weigh roughly 600,000 metric tons.
A similar amount of old solar panels will have accumulated by then, according to projections by the International Renewable Energy Agency. IRENA anticipates solar panel waste could reach 78 million metric tons by 2050. And Europe could see 300,000 metric tons per year of decommissioned wind turbine blades in the next two decades, says the trade association Wind Europe.
Each year, approximately 300,000 metric tons of lithium-ion battery waste is generated around the world, says Sheetanshu Upadhyay, an analyst with India’s Esticast Research & Consulting. Most of those batteries come from mobile devices, but that waste will soon be overshadowed by old electric car batteries. Sales of plug-in electric vehicles are expected to surpass 2.6 million in 2020, according to Navigation Research.”
The above data shows the amount of CO2 emission associated with implementation of renewable energy sources soon. There is a potential for large scale recycling industries on renewables, but it will come with a price and environmental issues. Right now, the main problem is the CO2 emission and the only way to tackle this problem is impose Carbon tax on emissions while encouraging industries with low emission technologies. It should be possible for UN to pass a unanimous resolution among the nations to address climate change by imposing Carbon tax uniformly across the nation. By such resolution UN can bring all those countries to the table who are currently reluctant to be a party to the Paris accord. Countries can use “Carbon rating” similar to “energy ratings” currently used for measuring energy efficiencies in appliances such as Heaters and air-conditioners. The lowest emitting technologies will get the highest Carbon rating while high emission technologies will get the lowest Carbon ratings. By using such a method country who are reluctant to act on climate change will be disadvantaged; they will not be able to compete in international market or export their goods to low emitting countries based on Carbon ratings.
Recently I filed a preliminary patent application on ‘decarbonisation’. It is a holistic process that uses only seawater and sun to generate a base load power with zero emission using the principle of ‘circular economy’. Somebody asked me to explain this technology in a lay man’s language. It is similar to an example what I explained as follows: Let me explain in a lay mans’s language. Imagine you fill your car with 50 lit petrol and go on a trip. The petrol is a Hydrocarbon (chemical term).Suppose I fit a small equipment on the exhaust pipe of your car which will collect the exhaust gases in a liquid form and collect it. When you finish your trip you can remove that equipment which collected your exhaust in a liquid form and hand over to a small processing unit on the road side. The processing unit will convert that exhaust liquid into Petrol once agin. You can fill your car with this new petrol and also fit your car with new exhaust collector and return back to your destination. It means there is a zero emission from your car. You need not convert your car into electric or do any modification at all. You don’t have to fill your car with new petrol. It is called CRT (carbon recycling technology). It means you don’t need any petrol at all except for the initial filling. Even that can be eliminated by extracting Carbon from sea water and synthesising a Carbon negative Petrol. No pollution at all because of zero emissions. It simply uses the same Carbon atom again and again by substituting the ‘fossil hydrogen’ with’ renewable hydrogen’ with absolutely no emissions. It fulfils all the requirement of a ‘circular economy’ and a Carbon -free atmosphere. What is unique about this technology is it derives Carbon from seawater (where CO2 has already been absorbed from industrial emissions) and converting into Carbon negative synthetic fuel (unlike Carbon neutral synthetic fuels which are made from CO2 emissions that encourages continuous usage of fossil fuels) with cleaner properties. An Oxy combustion will make it a unique fuel of the future. Our current focus is to generate a base load power(24 x7) without any energy storage at all. It is the only technology in the world that generates a base load power (24 x 7) and synthetic fuels such as aviation fuel, marine fuel, petrol, diesel and CNG using only Sun/wind and Seawater.
Hydrogen has been used as a reducing agent in chemical industries for decades but its usage as a fuel is a recent development. It has been demonstrated that it can be electro-chemically combusted using air as an oxidant to generate electricity and heat with only water as by-product. The result? Fuel cell was born. Japan has demonstrated that Fuel cell can be successfully used for transportation applications substituting fossil fuels. The first alkaline fuel cell was used by NASA which was in Gemini spacecraft which was run 1000 hours to demonstrate the long-duration functioning. A fuel cell is like a battery continues to generate current as long as the reactants are supplied. Currently this fuel cell is in Museum. Later Honda of Japan successfully demonstrated the first fuel cell car using compressed Hydrogen around the beginning of this new millennium. It is more than two decades since the fuel cell car was introduced. But it has not been commercially deployed on large scale till date. Though it was a clear demonstration that Hydrogen can substitute gasoline (petrol) successfully and eliminated Carbon pollution emitting only just water vapour and with zero noise pollution. Fuel cell without any mechanical components unlike IC engines was able to generate DC current that runs the propulsion. Unfortunately, it could not substitute IC engines run with gasoline due to high initial cost and lack of filling stations around the world. Though emission is only a harmless water vapour (as being claimed) it is a more potent greenhouse gas (GHG) than CO2 and in combination of CO2 present in the atmosphere it is likely to enhance the global warming by “feedback” effect shown by NASA. Too much water vapour in the atmosphere will have devastating consequences to climate change. “Water vapour feedback can amplify the warming effect of other greenhouse gases, such that the warming brought about by increasing CO2 allows more water vapour to enter the atmosphere…And since water is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from CO2”- NASA. It is unlikely fuel cell transportation will substitute IC engines soon. Electric cars too have their own issues. In either case availability of electricity with zero Carbon emission is the key, without which the consequences of global warming and climate change will remain the greatest threat to the planet earth and the humanity.
The only potential role for Hydrogen will be continued to be a reducing agent in a typical redox (reduction -oxidation) reactions in power generation. For example, Carbonaceous fuels such as coal, oil and gas are combusted to generate thermal energy which in turn converted into electricity using IC engines, steam and gas turbines. But bulk of the heat is wasted as a waste heat (potentially contributing to atmospheric warming) achieving low electrical efficiencies with unabated emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere. In such a dire situation the potential use of Hydrogen can only be a reducing agent to reduce oxidized Carbon (CO2) into CH4 to be recycled once again as a fuel. By this way the fossil Carbon can be recycled indefinitely while Hydrogen can be generated from water using a renewable energy source. The trade-off will be between whether renewable energy can be stored in batteries and used as direct electricity or use renewable Hydrogen to be used as reducing agent for decarbonising fossil fuel emissions. Hydrogen using renewable energy will be expensive, but it has a potential to be used a renewable synthetic methane gas (RSMG) for base load power generation on long term basis. Renewable energy using battery storage will be attractive in short term, but it cannot be used for baseload power generation and for larger capacity plants due to high cost of batteries beyond a point.
With current power generation capacity exceeding 65% from fossil fuel there is no easy solution to achieve zero emission by 2050. The one and only option will be to use renewable Hydrogen to generate RSMG which can be used as fuel of the future with a potential for Carbon recycling. This is the only way the world has a hope to achieve zero emissions by 2050. US government should impose price on Carbon while subsidising renewable Hydrogen for the purpose of converting it into RSMG. In the beginning RSMG will be more expensive than natural gas but it will eventually substitute natural gas as alternative fuel to generate base load power with zero emissions. The key will be large scale deployment of renewable energy and reduction of cost of renewable energy generation to less than $20/ Mwh.
This site is to promote RSMG (renewable synthetic methane gas) as the fuel of the future
This site is to promote RSMG (renewable synthetic methane gas) as the fuel of the future
Renewable Hydrogen # renewable synthetic methane gas # GHG emission #water vapour as GHG
World has been generating electricity using fossil fuels for decades while emitting CO2 into the atmosphere. It has always been a base load power which means generating electricity 24 x7 for 365 days in a year. The name plate capacity of the plant would indicate the power generation capacity. For example, a name plate capacity of 100 MW means, it is capable of generating 100 Mw electricity in an hour or 2400 Mwh in a day or 720,000 Mwh in a year working 300 days/yr. With global warming and changing climate there is a sudden awareness about the warming potential of CO2 emission and the necessity to eliminate such an emission. If we have to continue to generate electricity the way we had been doing in the past but without any CO2 emission then there is only one option; that is to recycle CO2 again in the form of a fuel (not necessarily a solid fuel) but a gaseous fuel in the form of RSMG (renewable synthetic methane gas). CEWT has been developing this circular technology known as CRT (Carbon recycling technology) for the past few years. That means it can open up a new method of electricity generation using a fossil fuel such as coal or gas using conventional equipment such as steam or gas turbine to generate a base load power, yet, with zero emission. This is precisely the technology the world needs right now. It is opening up a new possibility of using conventional fuel, existing infrastructure and yet capable of generating a base load power with zero emission. How wonderful is that? CRT uses Carbon that is already existing in air and sea which has accumulated over these years since the industrial revolution and a renewable Hydrogen (green hydrogen) to synthesise RSMG (renewable synthetic methane gas). This proposal uses CO2 extracted from the sea using special type of membrane using a desalination technique that allows to recover CO2 economically in a pure form. The process allows recovery of both CO2 as well as Hydrogen (green) from seawater simultaneously. It also generates pure Oxygen as a by-product for further Oxy combustion of natural gas.
Both CO2 and Hydrogen recovered above can be used to synthesise RSMG using a proprietary system using proprietary catalyst. The system generates not only RSMG but also excess heat from exothermic reaction which can be used to generate additional power using conventional steam turbine. RSMG can be used as fuel substituting natural gas using super critical CO2 gas turbine to generate electricity 24 x 7 as we had been doing for decades. The flue gas is separated into water and pure CO2 by condensation while CO2 is recycled to RSMG reactor thereby completing the cycle with net zero CO2 emission. The same process can be used to generate a base load power using even coal by simply gasifying coal with pure Oxygen generating Syngas and running a gas turbine with syngas instead of RSMG. However the resulting flue gas has got only water and CO2 which can be separated as before and CO2 is recycled into the system to synthesise RSMG and the cycle completes. It is a perfect example of a circular economy the world needs right now. The advantage of this technology is the fossil fuel can be completely eliminated by simply recycling the Carbon derived either from the sea or from the coal Indefinitely using renewable Hydrogen. Even water used in the system is completely recovered and recycled with zero emissions and zero liquid discharge. CEWT is willing to license the technology to all potential customers all over the world. All you need is a site on the seashore with good sunshine and wind and we will show case the technology generating a base load power with zero emission and with zero fossil fuel!
Countries still heavily depending upon coal as a primary source of fuel such as China,India, South Africa,Indonesia and others can use the above technology by retrofitting the above system and substituting coal with RSMG and eliminate coal completely! These countries can continue their base load electricity generation using Carbon negative fuel RSMG substituting coal in the same plant.This will allow those countries to generate their own fuel directly from seawater instead of depending on imported fuels. The above technology will allow seawater to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere reducing CO2 in the atmosphere.It is a win situation for all the stake holders and the environment! when the world is desperately looking for a lasting solution. It is absolutely clear from the above, fossil fuels and zero emissions are completely two different issues depending upon the source of Carbon and Hydrogen. If you know the ‘art’, one can generate a base load power with zero emissions even by using coal and even without burying CO2 as suggested in CCS or CCUS methods.
In my personal opinion, CRT is the only technology that can comprehensively address all the problems of global warming and climate change that is being debated in COP 26 meetings. Yet none of the companies have offered this solution because it will stop the usage of fossil fuel for good. After all, Greta Thunberg may be right in calling COP26 is just blah blah blah.
I previously posted an article titled, “Why climate change is irreversible, and Science is helpless?” couple of times because “Science” itself has fundamentally lost its purpose and direction. Science is no longer about pursuit of knowledge but a pursuit of wealth and fame. That is why most scientifically advanced countries are all wealthy countries focussing only on wealth creation. But such a wealth comes at the expense of social justice, environmental degradation, unsustainability and finally the very survival in our everyday life. I have always struggled with the idea that “science is the panacea of all human sufferings” even though I spent most part of my life pursuing Science. University degrees including research programs are all meant to meet the above goals of wealth creation as an underlying goal. It is purely a false identity of knowledge for materialism. If we look at the early Science up to the point of Quantum mechanics and beyond most of the Scientists including Albert Einstein did not pursue science to seek wealth and fame but for the sake of unravelling the mysteries of nature with a hope such a solution will lead to understanding of the universe. But he could not come to terms with Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum theory, arguing that “God does not play dice and there must be some underlying deterministic ‘clockwork’ running the universe and giving the appearance of probability at work in quantum systems. I still see Science struggling with the most fundamental part of creation namely ‘the light’ even after the development of quantum physics. I became disillusioned with science, and I believe Science has lost of purpose and direction. It is constantly being substituted with materialism and greed.
That is why I have become increasingly vary of science and my inclination towards spiritualism grew enormously in a short span of time, especially after I had some personal experiences which were not only inexplicable but pushed me to the total acceptance of spirituality as the ultimate solution to human suffering. It is just a realization that comes after a long worldly experience. I must call it “spiritual science”. The concepts and proofs of spiritual science may not involve mathematical models, equations and soft wares etc but they are based on logics and indisputable facts. Intelligence may be substituted by emotional intelligence because emotional intelligence originates from our ‘innate feelings and emotions’ from the heart rather than ‘rational thinking ‘that originates from mind.
Entropy is a scientific concept born out of observation and experience. Entropy leads from an order to chaos as time passes by. It was born out of an observation of nature. It is a sign of irreversibility, inefficiency and deterioration of quality from order to disorder. In ‘Yogic’ terms it can be termed as ‘mental modifications’ described in Sanskrit as ‘Chita virity’ by Patanjali of Yoga sutra. In order to restore order from chaos, the process must be reversed. What science is doing is moving from an order to disorder due to our ‘chiita vritty’ and the solution is to stop the modifications what Patanjali describes as ‘chitta vritty nirodha’ which is the real meaning of YOGA. There is a much more deep and subtler truth behind YOGA.
YOGA is all about controlling mind to achieve peace and happiness. Modification of mind ls nothing but an entropy. Stillness of mind reverses the entropy. Mind is an entity even the most advanced science such as neurobiology and psychiatry are unable to define, and science is still groping in darkness when comes to mind. Without understanding MIND and its nature how can we use it as a tool to unravel the mysteries of nature? You cannot remove darkness with darkness but only with light. It is highly significant that light was the first creation of the universe. Light existing outside time and space is the metaphysical link between the timeless eternity that precedes our universe and the world of time, space and matter within which we live. MIND cannot exist without a body (matter). Without a body living beings cannot perceive the world. What mind perceives in the world are forms of matters. It is the mind (Sushma sarira) subtle body which perceives the world and matter. But the MIND is an unknown entity that modifies itself every second of our life leading to chaos (an entropy). Therefore, Science as we know cannot be a solution to our problem but exacerbate our problems further.
That is precisely what happened to our technology of electricity generation, global warming and climate change. The solutions put forward by science to “fix the problem” too have only materialistic basis so that individuals and companies can survive and even thrive for some time based on the capital raised and cash flow it generates. Ultimately, they are bound to fail, and climate will irreversibly change wiping out bulk of the population by way of natural disasters, disease, draught, flood and war. Only Nature will fix the problem in the end.
Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you
will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that won’t be revealed.”
What he meant was, all we perceive in the external world in the name of forms and names do not originate from body (material) but from a Divine source. Can there be a sight without an eye (sight)? Both the eye and the sight are universal divine or collective consciousness.
The world is form of the five sense perceptions.Those five senses operate through five organs of senses. Since mind alone perceives the world through the medium of five senses, can there be a world apart from the mind?
Poll results and the discussions: A recent poll conducted in Linkedin and the results discussed as follows:
1.According to the poll recently conducted 73% of people said, “decarbonization” means to reduce Carbon emission. How to reduce CO2 emission when every time we switch our lights on or start our car engine CO2 is automatically emitted? It is possible only when the electricity we use (lights or Electric car) have zero or substantially reduced carbon footprint. Each individual house can have roof top solar panel with storage battery just for their consumption so that they can achieve zero carbon footprint. Alternatively small house holds (hundreds to thousands) can collectively install fully automated micro grids for their power generation and distribution network using solar and wind with battery storage and not to export or import from the centralized grid meant for large power generators for industrial applications. They can also have their own gas network (mixture of 80% natural gas + 20% renewable Hydrogen) for individual CHP applications. The centralized grid should have a zero emission or substantially reduced Carbon emission highlighted in the following paragraphs.
2. Zero percent people said Carbon should be substituted entirely by Hydrogen. The top 10 GHG emitting countries can use either EV or Fuel cell vehicles or a combination of these two for transport applications provided the electricity supply have a zero or substantially reduced Carbon footprint. For power and heating/cooling requirements individual houses can install their own CHP units using gas network (a mixture of 80% natural gas + 20% renewable hydrogen). Fuel cell cars can use renewable Hydrogen generated using PV solar/ wind turbine.
3. 13% of the people voted for adding Hydrogen to carbon. A distributed power system using syngas (a mixture of CO and Hydrogen) as a fuel to generate electricity and district heating and cooling using waste heat can be installed. The resulting CO2 emission along with water vapor can be captured and recycled in the form of syngas using PEM or SOFC electrolyzers.
4. 13% of the people voted for Carbon to disappear. I guess they prefer Carbon capture and use or storage (CCUS) or Carbon capture and sequester deep underground. This technology is yet to be proven commercially on large scale especially by power plants using coal. But “making carbon disappear” is impossible because it violates the fundamental law of physics (matter can neither be created or destroyed). It can be stored temporarily deep underground, but I question the technical feasibility and economic viability of such a scheme. Coal has been used for power generation due to its cheap availability and cheap cost of power generation despite a low electrical efficiency at 32%. But CO2 content in the flue gas is only around 11% and recovery of CO2, compression, long distance transportation and sequestration may substantially increase the cost of CO2 disposal making electricity very expensive. It will be simply unviable.
Top 10 GHG (greenhouse gases) emitters in the world
(Source: World resources institute)
The top three GHG emitters- China, EU and USA contribute 41.5% of the total global emissions while the bottom 100 countries account for only 3.6%. Collectively the top 10 emitters account for over two third of the global GHG emissions according to WRI.
Summary of Life cycle GHG emission intensity (Source: World nuclear association report)
Technology
Mean
Low
High
tones CO2e/GWh
Lignite
1,054
790
1,372
Coal
888
756
1,310
Oil
733
547
935
Natural Gas
499
362
891
Solar PV
85
13
731
Biomass
45
10
101
Nuclear
29
2
130
Hydroelectric
26
2
237
Wind
26
6
124
About 84% % of the world’s energy in the year 2020 was met only by fossil fuels according to Forbes based on BP’s annual review. Therefore, CO2 emission reduction should be targeted mainly by power generation and transportation industries two major users of fossil fuels.
Various methods of using fossil fuels for power generation and their CO2 emissions are shown below assuming Oxy combustion and gasification are used.
Fuel Process Reaction CO2 emission by wt. percentage
THE OXIDANTS USED IN ALL THE ABOVE PROCESSES ARE PURE OXYGEN AND NOT AIR
(Air oxidation will show low CO2 emission by weight percentage due to large portion of Oxides of Nitrogen, Nitrogen and excess oxygen present in the flue gas)
1.By simply closing all coal operations and switching over to natural gas for power generation the CO2 emission can be reduced by 48% compared to coal and by 17.4 % compared to Diesel. It is critical top 10 emitters of GHG emission should close all their coal fired power plants by 2022 or impose Carbon tax at the rate of $250/Mt to force such closures. CCS or CCUS can be allowed by coal fired power plants provided such technologies are commercially proven and verifiable. Otherwise, Carbon penalty should apply retrospectively.
2 All gas fired power plants can use either natural gas or Syngas (H2 +CO mix) using Oxy combustion to generate power and achieve an electrical efficiency of at least 65% by bottom cycling with sCO2 power cycle using waste heat or 85% using CHP application. Synthetic natural gas (SNG) can substitute natural gas (fossil origin) by using DIC dissolved inorganic in the form of CO2 recovered from seawater and renewable Hydrogen so that SNG will be Carbon negative. Alternatively, CO2 recovered directly from air can be used to synthesize SNG using renewable hydrogen. Carbon pricing will encourage such Carbon negative fuels. Fuels synthesized from captured CO2 from natural gas fired power plants and hydrogen should be treated as “Carbon neutral’ till 2022 and it should attract carbon tax beyond 2022.
3.Oxy combustion closed super critical CO2 power cycle using natural gas is to be encouraged by enabling pipeline CO2 to be recycled in the form of renewable synthetic methane gas (RSMG) using renewable Hydrogen thus achieving zero emission. It should be confined to individual location and RSMG should not be allowed to be exported but recycled within the premises.
4.CO2 emissions by transport can be reduced by 17.8% by substituting diesel vehicles with CNG by countries other than the top 10 emitters. Top emitting countries can use Fuel cell using renewable Hydrogen banning IC engine using fossil fuels or allow Electric vehicles with Fuel Cell extenders.
5. Deployment of largescale renewables such as solar and wind as well as biomass technologies substituting coal fired power plants will be the key. However renewable energy is only intermittent and will require large scale battery for energy storage. Even battery production emits 150-200 kgs of CO2 per kwh based on the energy consumption @97-181 kwh per kwh battery production (Nearly 200 times more CO2 emission than coal fired power plants). Therefore, utility scale batteries should be justified. Therefore, Bioenergy can play a major role in countries like Australia, African countries, Indonesia, India and Brazil in decarbonization especially biocrude can be converted into renewable synthetic fuels as Carbon neutral fuels.
6. Renewable energy such as solar and wind can be stored in the form of syngas by electrolysis of CO2 emissions from Oxy combustion of natural gas or by gasification of coal as shown above. Low temperature electrolysis using PEM or high temperature electrolysis using SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) can convert CO2 into syngas. Both the processes have been already demonstrated. Syngas can be stored under pressure, and it can be used as a fuel for a continuous production electricity using Oxy combustion such as sCO2 Brayton cycle and recycling CO2 in the form of Syngas.
CO2 + H2O => H2 + CO (by electrolysis using PEM or SOFC)
7.Using Oxy combustion of natural gas in closed super critical CO2 Bryton power cycle and recycling CO2 internally in the form of RSMG using renewable Hydrogen, ZERO EMISSION base load power can be achieved. The advantage of this system it requires natural gas only for the start-up and it can generate RSMG internally using renewable Hydrogen. It can generate baseload power with zero emissions. And the electrical efficiency of such as system can be up to 65%. It runs completely using only renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Water electrolysis using PEM or Alkaline Electrolyzer have been commercially proven.
It does not require any energy storage at all. The power can be directly exported to the centralized grid as well as imported from the grid for hydrogen generation.
By adopting CRT (Carbon recycling technology) outlined above it is possible to achieve zero emissions by power plants and supply power to all industries including transport industries.
By the introduction of Electric vehicles and Fuel cell vehicles replacing petrol/diesel vehicles the electricity demand will sharply increase in some countries which will proportionately increase GHG emissions. CRT can eliminate GHG emissions as shown above.
The best option is to generate base load electricity with zero GHG emissions using CRT using sCO2 power cycle and recycling CO2 in the form of RSMG and converting waste heat into electricity by bottom cycling using sCO2 power cycle thus increasing the electrical efficiency to more than 70-75%. Advanced bioenergy to convert biomass directly into biomethane can play a major role in decarbonization. It will require massive plantation of high CO2 absorbing short life plant varieties all over the world but unlikely to happen.
Implementation of the above technologies will require massive amount of water especially for renewable hydrogen and for biomass production and gasification and the major source will be the sea. Advancement in seawater desalination such as high recovery, low energy consumption, better concentrate management by recovering value added chemicals and minerals and substituting solar salt by high purity brine directly from seawater desalination will be required, achieving zero liquid discharge in SWRO plants will be critical to eliminate global warming by highly concentrated effluent discharge. All SWRO plants should use only renewable energy sources sch as solar and wind or Hydro.
The above suggestions are purely based on the author’s assessment based on his personal experience in the industry for the past 40 years.
The classical example of “Entropy” which manifest itself as a waste heat and inefficiency is also an irreversible reality. Current electricity production technologies heavily depend on converting thermal energy into an electrical energy which also guarantees generation of huge amount of waste heat. It is not just the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and waste heat that goes along with it but also bulk of the waste heat dissipated by way of convection and radiation into the environment since the time of industrial revolution has contributed to global warming. About 59.40% of thermal energy generated so far has entered the atmosphere. For example, US consumes about 105 EJ (Exa joules) each year out of which 62EJ enters the atmosphere as a waste heat. Successfully harnessing this waste heat will be a valuable contribution in solving global warming problem. The solution for global warming and climate change lies in harnessing the available Carbon from the atmosphere and the sea but also the waste heat from the atmosphere and the sea. About 90% of heat dissipated since industrial revolution has been absorbed by the sea. Total amount of fossil fuels consumed worldwide since industrial revolution is estimated at nearly 140,000 TWH (Tera watt hours). 1 TWH is equivalent to 3.44 x 10 12 Btu. The reality is we had been heating up the atmosphere for more than 200 years by waste heat.This dissipated heat has accelerated global warming and further exacerbated by GHG (greenhouse gas) effect caused by CO2 and water vapour and triggered the change in climate worldwide. According to Flanner 2009, the contribution of waste heat to the global warming is 0.028W/m2. In contrast, the contribution from greenhouse gases is 2.9W/m2 (IPCC AR 4 Section 2.1). Waste heat is about 1% of greenhouse warming.The heat dissipated and absorbed by the sea has been distributed across the globe by ocean currents. Increasing seawater salinity caused by evaporation and concentrate discharge from seawater desalination plants world wide and cooling water from thermal power plants have retained bulk of the heat and distributed across the oceans thus elevating seawater temperature. Such warming ocean in addition to warming atmosphere have contributed to melting glaciers in the poles. Oceans are acting as a sink for both heat as well as carbon thereby acidifying the seawater. The pH value has been reduced from 8.2 before industrial revolution to 8.00 at current level which may not look like a big difference, but it has absorbed billions of tons of CO2 to cause the above reduction in pH value. In natural systems such as atmosphere and the oceans a slight variation will have a huge impact due it is vastness in area. Normal human body temperature is about 36.9 C but an increase of 1.5 C (101.12F) will cause hospitalisation. Natural world is very sensitive even to minor changes and that is why human activity has to be restricted and not to cause imbalance to the natural systems. In other words ”Entropy” is an integral part of the natural world and any irreversibility caused by human beings will lead to unsustainability. For example burning fossil fuel is an irreversible chemical reaction which invariably lead to unsustainability. It is not only about the sustainability but also the economic viability that will determine the future of energy industry. It is a low efficiency technology that is currently predominant in electricity generation.The key is the maximum utilisation of thermal energy released by combustion of fossil fuel but also recycling released Carbon in a closed system using CRT (Carbon recycling technology) which can achieve zero emissions.
climate change# salinity #ocean acidification # water vapor #flooding # bushfires
Irreversible climate change and human failure !
Increasing ocean salinity, decreasing ocean pH, increasing CO2 concentration and water vapor in the atmosphere will irreversibly change the climate. All the above four parameters are directly attributed to human activity and they are inter-related. Warming ocean and increasing evaporation in some parts of the world, large scale (billions of m3/day) discharge of highly concentrated saline effluent from seawater desalination plants around the world, unabated emission of CO2 and water vapor by burning fossil fuels, ocean acidification by CO2 absorption are directly connected with human activities. NASA is monitoring seawater salinity and water vapor concentration in the atmosphere using special satellites while NOAA is monitoring ocean acidification and salinity of the oceans. They can only provide information and warnings but it is up to relevant government authorities to act. Failure to act will cost lives and the economy and the world is already witnessing them. Oil and gas companies are now using a new slogan (carbon capture and storage or sequestration and reuse) to prolong continuity of fossil fuels. “carbon capture” guarantees continuity of “Carbon emissions”. The real solution is to “decarbonize our air and sea” and recycle Carbon internally in a closed system not “carbon capture or reuse and claim Carbon neutrality”. These projects will exacerbate climate change if we fail to decarbonize air and sea using renewable Hydrogen. An estimated 2000 billion tons of CO2 is already available in air and sea since the industrial revolution and there is no need for any fresh fossil fuel. We are facing “irreversible climate change and human failure to address them in a timely manner”. Bold leadership and political will while monitoring ‘misleading players’ and penalizing emitters by imposing Carbon tax will be the key.
Please check:https://lnkd.in/gv2Ba99
WATER AND ENERGY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
I always believed one can create energy from water and water from energy. Ancient Hindus believed water comes from fire and fire comes from water, two fundamental building blocks out of five elements that are necessary for Creation.
Water (H2O) is made up of two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. The structure itself is an absolute beauty because it contains both reductant and oxidant tied up inseparably in such a way it requires enormous energy to separate them. Individually Hydrogen forms an explosive mixture with air on combustion. People familiar with Oxy Hydrogen will know such a stoichiometric mixture of Hydrogen and Oxygen in gaseous form by water electrolysis generate a flame that can cut an iron piece but leaves water on condensation. Current methods of Electrolysis using PEM (proton exchange membrane) can not only split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen but also separates them simultaneously into two different gases. Fuel cell just reverses the above reaction by combining Hydrogen and Oxygen generating electrical power and heat as a by-product. The basic fundamental facts about water and energy remain the same for millennia.
We are now facing a new challenge of global warming and climate change that is supposed to be caused by the unabated emission of CO2 into the atmosphere by the combustion of fossil fuels. The world is now gearing up to achieve net-zero emission by 2050. In my opinion, it is not such a big challenge but the world has neglected emissions for too long. The science of electricity generation using electromagnetism is far from perfect in the sense it failed to take into account the emissions by combustion of fossil fuels. The simple solution is to reduce the oxides of Carbon back into Carbon so that there will be zero-emission. Unfortunately, we never used pure Oxygen for combustion but air because it is readily available and cheap to use. But it generates not only CO2 but also NOx, NO2, H2S, SO2, etc all contributing to air pollution which is now affecting the world by way of global warming and climate change. The CO2 level in the atmosphere has now reached 415 ppm which is only part of the anthropogenic CO2 emission since the industrial revolution. About a third of it has been absorbed by the ocean thus acidifying the seawater. The pH level of the sea is slowly but steadily decreasing making it more acidic. Thanks to the enormous buffering capacity of the sea and such a change are hardly noticeable. But it will soon change the chemistry of the water. It is a complex situation with the changing chemistry of seawater due to absorption of CO2, heat, increasing salinity. Sealevel rise due to melting of glaciers, constant discharge of highly concentrated effluent discharges from seawater desalination plants and power plant cooling towers, etc. Climate modeling in the future will be challenging.
I previously posted an article on “Zero-emission baseload power using only sun and sea”.It has attracted many viewers worldwide especially in my blog/: https://www.clean-energy-water-tech.com.
I have already filed a provisional patent application with IP Australia and I am in the process of filing an international patent application so that I can secure an IP with a value. The technology is based on a couple of well-proven concepts and it will not be difficult to implement them commercially. A couple of multinational companies have already endorsed my process and they are even willing to take part as EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contractors.
I am planning to seek donations and contributions from my worldwide audience by way of crowdfunding to secure an IP worldwide so that I can practically contribute my knowledge and experience to address one of the greatest challenges of global warming and climate change by installing a demo plant.
Please watch this blog and my next article will elaborate on my patented technology
CARBON RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY (CRT) also known as RAMANA POWER CYCLE (RPC) FOR A ZERO EMISSION BASELOAD POWER USING ONLY SUN AND SEA.
I invite everyone to contribute by donating to this great cause. Please visit by clicking the following link. It is a small step into lasting solution to our emission problem. It will also help reduce acid acidification slowly but steadily so that we can save our marine species including corals. By securing a IP (intellectual property) by way of an international patent will enable me to demonstrate the technology by setting up a demonstration plant of 25MW capacity using only SUN AND SEA! Click the following link to participate in the campaign !
WATER AND ENERGY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
I always believed one can create energy from water and water from energy. Ancient Hindus believed water comes from fire and fire comes from water, two fundamental building blocks out of five elements that are necessary for Creation.
Water (H2O) is made up of two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. The structure itself is an absolute beauty because it contains both reductant and oxidant tied up inseparably in such a way it requires enormous energy to separate them. Individually Hydrogen forms an explosive mixture with air on combustion. People familiar with Oxy Hydrogen will know such a stoichiometric mixture of Hydrogen and Oxygen in gaseous form by water electrolysis generate a flame that can cut an iron piece but leaves water on condensation. Current methods of Electrolysis using PEM (proton exchange membrane) can not only split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen but also separates them simultaneously into two different gases. Fuel cell just reverses the above reaction by combining Hydrogen and Oxygen generating electrical power and heat as a by-product. The basic fundamental facts about water and energy remain the same for millennia.
We are now facing a new challenge of global warming and climate change that is supposed to be caused by the unabated emission of CO2 into the atmosphere by the combustion of fossil fuels. The world is now gearing up to achieve net-zero emission by 2050. In my opinion, it is not such a big challenge but the world has neglected emissions for too long. The science of electricity generation using electromagnetism is far from perfect in the sense it failed to take into account the emissions by combustion of fossil fuels. The simple solution is to reduce the oxides of Carbon back into Carbon so that there will be zero-emission. Unfortunately, we never used pure Oxygen for combustion but air because it is readily available and cheap to use. But it generates not only CO2 but also NOx, NO2, H2S, SO2, etc all contributing to air pollution which is now affecting the world by way of global warming and climate change. The CO2 level in the atmosphere has now reached 415 ppm which is only part of the anthropogenic CO2 emission since the industrial revolution. About a third of it has been absorbed by the ocean thus acidifying the seawater. The pH level of the sea is slowly but steadily decreasing making it more acidic. Thanks to the enormous buffering capacity of the sea and such a change are hardly noticeable. But it will soon change the chemistry of the water. It is a complex situation with the changing chemistry of seawater due to absorption of CO2, heat, increasing salinity. Sealevel rise due to melting of glaciers, constant discharge of highly concentrated effluent discharges from seawater desalination plants and power plant cooling towers, etc. Climate modeling in the future will be challenging.
I previously posted an article on “Zero-emission baseload power using only sun and sea”.It has attracted many viewers worldwide especially in my blog/: https://www.clean-energy-water-tech.com.
I have already filed a provisional patent application with IP Australia and I am in the process of filing an international patent application so that I can secure an IP with a value. The technology is based on a couple of well-proven concepts and it will not be difficult to implement them commercially. A couple of multinational companies have already endorsed my process and they are even willing to take part as EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contractors.
I am planning to seek donations and contributions from my worldwide audience by way of crowdfunding to secure an IP worldwide so that I can practically contribute my knowledge and experience to address one of the greatest challenges of global warming and climate change by installing a demo plant.
Please watch this blog and my next article will elaborate on my patented technology
CARBON RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY (CRT) also known as RAMANA POWER CYCLE (RPC) FOR A ZERO EMISSION BASELOAD POWER USING ONLY SUN AND SEA.
I invite everyone to contribute by donating to this great cause. Please visit by clicking the following link. It is a small step into lasting solution to our emission problem. It will also help reduce acid acidification slowly but steadily so that we can save our marine species including corals. By securing a IP (intellectual property) by way of an international patent will enable me to demonstrate the technology by setting up a demonstration plant of 25MW capacity using only SUN AND SEA!
ahilan.raman@clean-energy-water-tech.com
Clean Energy and Water Technologies 
