Mitigate CO2 emissions

There are several possible ways to mitigate CO2 emission problems. Among them are traditional approaehes ineluding (i) more efficient use of fossil fuel energy resources, (ii) increased use of elean fossil fuels, sueh as NG, and (iii) increased use of non-fossil fuels (nuclear power and renewable sources). The novel and most radical approach to effectively manage carbon emissions is the decarbonization of fossil fuels. Three main scenarios of fossil fuels decarbonization are currently discussed in the literature ... 

Recent studies have addressed the combustion of natural gas with pure oxygen, highly diluted with exhaust gases (CO2 and H2O) in order to mitigate both NO and CO2 emissions from power plants. The so-called oxy-fuel combustion includes an air separation unit, which delivers O2 to the catalytic stage, where it is mixed with natural gas and the exhaust recycle stream. An example is the Advanced Zero Emission GT, first jointly studied by Norsk Hydro and ABB Alstom Power [28-31]. 

The reality is, however, that it will be politically difficult or impossible to stabilize CO2 emissions at 1990 levels, let alone bring about a significant reduction. Rubin et al.is discuss some realistic mitigation options. 

For some areas, especially for those new areas, water drive will continue in operation for a long period. If sludge injection (CO2 and water alternative injection) is adopted, not only can oil output be increased, but also CO2 mitigation benefits can be achieved additionally. In this case the baseline option is water drive, by which the CO2 emission is mainly caused by the electricity consumption for water pumping and oil production, and the cost levels are lower. 

For baseline option as water drive By the scale of the pilot project in JiLin Oil Field, it is estimated that annual CO2 emission mitigation will reach 3.56 kt-C or 13.07 kt-C02, in which the net CO2 emission mitigation per unit oil production is 0.64 t-C02/t-oil. 

One example of conversion of food material to consumer product is biodiesel. Conversion of pahn oil into biodiesel has been carried out in various countries in Europe as well as in Malaysia, a move motivated mainly by the increasing price of petroleum and to a certain extent to mitigate global warming by rednc-ing CO2 emission. Production of biodiesel in Malaysia increased twofolds from 47,986 tons in 2006 to 89,132 tons in 2007, which could only substitute a mere 1 % of the demand for diesel (Lam et al. 2009). The demand for biodiesel in Europe alone was expected to reach more than 10 million tons by 2010 (Lam et al. 2009). Nevertheless, by using biodiesel, exploitation of natural resources could be controlled and sustained for the future generation. 

Like in the Sleipner field (North Sea), the CO2 is anticipated to be captnred and stored appropriately. Additional CO2 capture is possible in the power and other energy intensive sectors. Specific possibilities for the mitigation of CO2 emissions include decarbonization of blast furnace gas in the iron and steel industry, and in the hydrogen production. 

The transition towards a world economy based on energy supply via sustainable sources such as wind-, hydro- and solar energy, or nuclear power (of which fission still suffers from a bad public image caused by concerns over nuclear waste and proliferation, whereas fusion has so far failed to live up to its potential) is therefore expected to be a lengthy process that cannot be expected to be solely responsible for the stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in this century. Rather, a combination of many of the mitigation alternatives will need to be adopted to significantly curb CO2 emissions. 

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