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2024 | Book

Decarbonisation

From Industrial to Personal Uses

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About this book

This book is an insightful introduction to the pressing issues surrounding the climate emergency. The book proposes a set of principles of action, which prioritize technological solutions classified in descending order of carbon density.

The book highlights the urgent need to decarbonize industrial sites, as they are the primary sources of carbon emissions. It presents a rational approach to limiting emissions by improving the operational efficiency of industrial processes, electrification, and substitution of fossil fuels with carbon-free energy vectors such as hydrogen or ammonia. The book also describes processes for carbon capture, sequestration in the subsoil, and recovery through industrial products.

To demonstrate the application of these principles in difficult-to-decarbonize industrial segments, the book uses the industrial transport industry as an example. It also addresses the decarbonization of individual uses, such as electric cars for individual transport and heat pumps for individual heating.

The book concludes by discussing the capture of carbon directly from the atmosphere. It presents a comprehensive view of decarbonization technology, providing readers with a clear understanding of the technological basis required to develop any decarbonization roadmap. The book takes a scientific and engineering approach, trying to avoid any ideological or apocalyptic stance sometimes associated with the topic. The reader is left with a logical and realistic perspective of decarbonization, taking into account scientific and economic logic and orders of magnitude.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Emissions Need to Be Reduced
Abstract
Physically, the mechanisms of global warming are well known. They are linked to the increase in greenhouse gases which lead the atmosphere to absorb part of the infrared radiation re-radiated by the earth from solar radiation. The absorption of this infrared radiation results in a rise in temperature near the earth’s surface.
Thierry Lucidarme
Chapter 2. The Decarbonisation of the Industry
Abstract
Chapter 1 is starting from the facts that climate change and global warming is a proven reality. Key notions like scope of emissions and carbon neutrality are developed and illustrated. Key areas to decarbonize the industry are then proposed in a logical framework with the following highlighted logic pillars. Preventing solutions are better than curing i.e. solving and dealing with CO2 while emitted. In order to prevent emitting it is focused on: Dealing rapidly with dense emitting industries like steel or cement or power plants industries may be easier and cheaper than concentrated scattered emissions. This part will particularly focus on industrial efficiency improvement, Electrification and Renewable energies deployment and new substitution products production like Hydrogen or Ammonia to replace fossil fuel use cases. To deal and cure the inevitable CO2 production, we have highlighted the carbon capture solutions associated potentially with some processes of valuing the captured CO2 to reduce cost of the CO2 capture and find viable solutions for the CO2 processing along the value chain. Valuing the CO2 without or with a transformation is therefore also addressed in this part.
Thierry Lucidarme
Chapter 3. The Decarbonisation of Difficult or Diffuse Use Cases
Abstract
In this chapter, it is addressed some difficult industry segments like transportation or agriculture, which account for almost half of the global emissions. These segments are difficult to change because of the scattered dimension of the problem. The problems are also difficult to solve because of the legacy efficiency of the previous carbonised process based on oil as for long distance transportation for instance. Likewise, agriculture needs to deal with opposite challenges such as ensuring a low cost food security and regenerating the soils. However, some derived Technology concept of Chap. 1 can also be applied in this part in an adapted way as:
  • Electricity, storage Technologies and alternative fuels are key to provide the relevant Technology background to date for the transportation challenges.
  • Bio-Technologies, electric farms, automation and planning, biomass pyrolysis, biochar adsorption could be essential for soil regeneration and solving carbon challenges in agriculture.
  • Electric cars and electric heat pumps need to decarbonise the most important individual uses like car transportation and household heating.
Ultimately, direct air capture Technology will be addressed as well.
Thierry Lucidarme
Chapter 4. Financing the Energy Transition
Abstract
There is no doubt that a parallel can be drawn, all things considered, between the digital transition that took place from the end of the 1990s and the energy transition that is necessary today.
Thierry Lucidarme
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Decarbonisation
Author
Thierry Lucidarme
Copyright Year
2024
Electronic ISBN
978-3-031-53330-3
Print ISBN
978-3-031-53329-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53330-3

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