Hi All
Paragraph 2 mentions 'carbon negative' nuclear energy. The carbon
emissions from a complete, working nuclear power station are mainly
people driving to work. But digging, crushing and processing uranium
ore needs energy and releases carbon in inverse proportion to the ore
grade. There were some amazingly high grade ores, some once even at the
critical point for reaction, but these have been used. Analysis by van
Leeuwen concludes that the carbon advantage of present nuclear
technology over gas is about three but that the break-even point comes
when the ore grade drops to around 100 ppm. This could happen within
the life of plant planned now.
As we do not know how to do waste disposal we cannot estimate its carbon
emissions. But just because we cannot calculate them does not mean that
they are zero.
Stephen
Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design. School of Engineering.
University of Edinburgh. Mayfield Road. Edinburgh EH9 3JL. Scotland
[email protected] Tel +44 (0)131 650 5704 Cell 07795 203 195
WWW.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs YouTube Jamie Taylor Power for Change
On 24/01/2015 14:56, Andrew Lockley wrote:
Poster's note : none of this explains why there's any need for
integration. Chucking olivine in the sea seems easier and cheaper than
all.
http://theenergycollective.com/noahdeich/2183871/3-ways-carbon-removal-can-help-unlock-promise-all-above-energy-strategy
3 Ways Carbon Removal can Help Unlock the Promise of an
All-of-the-Above Energy Strategy
January 24, 2015
“We can’t have an energy strategy for the last century that traps us
in the past. We need an energy strategy for the future – an
all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every
source of American-made energy.”– President Barack Obama, March 15, 2012
An all-of-the-above energy strategy holds great potential to make our
energy system more secure, inexpensive, and environmentally-friendly.
Today’s approach to all-of-the-above, however, is missing a key
piece: carbon dioxide removal (“CDR”). Here’s three reasons why CDR is
critical for the success of an all-of-the-above energy strategy:
1. CDR helps unite renewable energy and fossil fuel proponents to
advance carbon capture and storage (“CCS”) projects. Many renewable
energy advocates view CCS as an expensive excuse to enable
business-as-usual fossil fuel emissions. But biomass energy with CCS
(bio-CCS) projects are essentially “renewable CCS” (previously viewed
as an oxymoron), and could be critical for drawing down atmospheric
carbon levels in the future. As a result, fossil CCS projects could
provide a pathway to “renewable CCS” projects in the future. Because
of the similarities in the carbon capture technology for fossil and
bioenergy power plants, installing capture technology on fossil power
plants today could help reduce technology and regulatory risk
for bio-CCS projects in the future. What’s more, bio-CCS projects can
share the infrastructure for transporting and storing CO2 with fossil
CCS installations. Creating such a pathway to bio-CCS should be
feasible through regulations that increase carbon prices and/or
biomass co-firing mandates slowly over time, and could help unite
renewable energy and CCS proponents to develop policies that enable
the development of cost-effective CCS technology.
2. CDR bolsters the environmental case for nuclear power by enabling
it to be carbon “negative”: Many environmental advocates say that
low-carbon benefits of nuclear power are outweighed by the other
environmental and safety concerns of nuclear projects. The development
of advanced nuclear projects paired with direct air capture (“DAC”)
devices, however, could tip the scales in nuclear’s favor. DAC systems
that utilize the heat produced from nuclear power plants can benefit
from this “free” source of energy to potentially sequester CO2
directly from the atmosphere cost-effectively. The ability for nuclear
+ DAC to provide competitively-priced, carbon-negative energy could
help convince nuclear power’s skeptics to support further
investigation into developing safe and environmentally-friendly
advanced nuclear systems.
3. CDR helps enable a cost-effective transition to a decarbonized
economy: Today, environmental advocates claim that prolonged use
of fossil fuels is mutually exclusive with preventing climate
change, and fossil fuel advocates bash renewables as not ready for
“prime time” — i.e. unable to deliver the economic/development
benefits of inexpensive fossil energy. To resolve this
logjam, indirect methods of decarbonization — such as a portfolio of
low-cost CDR solutions — could enable fossil companies both to meet
steep emission reduction targets and provide low-cost fossil energy
until direct decarbonization through renewable energy systems become
more cost-competitive (especially in difficult to decarbonize areas
such as long-haul trucking and aviation).
Of course, discussion about the potential for CDR to enable an
all-of-the-above energy strategy is moot unless we invest in
developing a portfolio of CDR approaches. But if we do make this
investment in CDR, an all-of-the-above energy strategy that delivers a
diversified, low-cost, and low-carbon energy system stands a greater
chance of becoming a reality.
Noah Deich
Noah Deich is a professional in the carbon removal field with six
years of clean energy and sustainability consulting experience. Noah
currently works part-time as a consultant for the Virgin Earth
Challenge, is pursuing his MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC
Berkeley, and writes a blog dedicated to carbon removal
(carbonremoval.wordpress.com <http://carbonremoval.wordpress.com>)
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