Fossil environmental impact

Rayon is unique among the mass produced man-made fibers because it is the only one to use a natural polymer (cellulose) directly. Polyesters, nylons, polyolefins, and acryflcs all come indirectly from vegetation they come from the polymerization of monomers obtained from reserves of fossil fuels, which in turn were formed by the incomplete biodegradation of vegetation that grew millions of years ago. The extraction of these nonrenewable reserves and the resulting return to the atmosphere of the carbon dioxide from which they were made is one of the most important environmental issues of current times. CeUulosic fibers therefore have much to recommend them provided that the processes used to make them have minimal environmental impact. 

Coal used in power stations has the potential to be partly replaced by fuels derived from pre-treated plastics and paper waste, reducing both dependency on fossil fuels and reliance on landfill. APME reports on a project in the Netherlands which it co-sponsored to develop a substitute fuel from plastics. The environmental assessment of the project compared the environmental impacts of coal substitution with other plastics recovery methods, including gasification in feedstock recycling and energy recovery from plastics waste in cement kilns. The study also compared coal substitution with the generation of power from burning biomass. 

Of these, climate change has the potential to become by far the most important. If taken seriously by politicians (which is not the case in a number of countries), this could require eventual stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere (usually expressed in terms of ppm CO2 equivalent) if the environmental impact is to be controlled. Should such a stabilisation target be set at double the C02 content at the start of the industrial revolution and this to be reached by 2050, calculations show that fossil foel may by then have to be limited to around 25% of energy demand, compared to some 82% today. 

Catalysis could play a relevant role in limiting the environmental impact associated with biofuel production. In fact, it has been estimated, for example, that significantly more waste water arises in the production of biofuels than in the production of fuels using fossil resources. New (catalytic) processes for handling waste water deriving from biofuel production need to be developed. 

The increasing cost of fossil fuels and the concerns related to their environmental impact and greenhouse gas effect, as well as the need of securing energy supplies, are accelerating the transition to a bio-based economy. Various R D tools need to be provided to realize this transition. The replacement of fossil fuel by bio-mass has been addressed in recent years worldwide. The EU, for example, has defined a target to double the share of renewable energy from 6% in 1997 to 12% by 2010 (COM 1997 599). 

Since the industrial revolution mankind has been dependent on fossil hydrocarbon fuel for a very large proportion of total energy needs. Coal was the dominant form until the first half of the twentieth century when fluid hydrocarbons began to make significant inroads due to easier recovery, handling and transportation. Many of the fluid forms also had lower sulphur content than coal and were therefore more attractive from the environmental impact standpoint. 

Desulphurisation of hydrocarbon fuels has traditionally been carried out primarily as part of the refining and upgrading process. Accordingly by far the most advanced and best understood chemistry and technology is to be found in this area. Prior to the advent of major concern for environmental impact of fossil fuel combustion products relatively little was done to desulphurise hydrocarbon fuels (principally coal) prior to combustion and past effects of large scale consumption of high sulphur coals can still be seen in major industrialised areas around the world. 

In the 1970s, a first serious energy crisis related to a sharp increase in the cost of fossil fuels led to a revival of interest in water electrolysis. This time the interest was focused on hydrogen as an energy vector that could possibly replace fossil fuels in the world economy The aim was twofold to become relatively independent of the influence of the oil market and to reduce the environmental impact of the... 

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