Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation

There has been a heated discussion on climate change in recent years, with a particular focus on global warming.Instrumental recording of temperatures has been available for less than 200 years. Over the last 100 years, a temperature increase of 0.5°C could be measured [1] with rather different regional patterns and trends [2]. Over the last several million years there have been warmer and colder periods on Earth, and the climate fluctuates for a variety of natural reasons, as data from tree rings, pollen, and ice core samples have shown. However, human activities on Earth have reached an extent that they impact the globe in potentially catastrophic ways.

Life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions have been developed for analyzing products “from cradle to grave”: from resource extraction to waste disposal. Life cycle assessment methodology has also been applied to economies, trade between countries, aspects of production and to waste management, including CO₂ capture and sequestration. Life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions are often part of wider environmental assessments, which also cover other environmental impacts. Such wider ranging assessments allow for considering “trade-offs” between (reduction of) greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts and co-benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Databases exist which contain estimates of current greenhouse gas emissions linked to fossil fuel use and to many current agricultural and industrial activities. However these data bases do allow for substantial uncertainties in emission estimates. Assessments of greenhouse gas emissions linked to new processes and products are subject to even greater data-linked uncertainty. Variability in outcomes of life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions may furthermore originate in different choices regarding functional units, system boundaries, time horizons, and the allocation of greenhouse gas emissions to outputs in multi-output processes.Life cycle assessments may be useful in the identification of life cycle stages that are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and of major reduction options, in the verification of alleged climate benefits and to establish major differences between competing products. They may also be helpful in the analysis and development of options, policies, and innovations aimed at mitigation of climate change.The main findings from available life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions are summarized, offering guidance in mitigating climate change. Future directions in developing life cycle assessment and its application are indicated. These include: better handling of indirect effects, of uncertainty, and of changes in carbon stock of recent biogenic origin; and improved comprehensiveness in dealing with climate warming.

Over the past 3 decades from the 1980s forward, the subject of climate change has progressed from general study and media interest to a daily hot topic discussion in all aspects of society worldwide. In the same way, carbon management programs, climate change legislation, energy legislation, and similar mitigation programs and reduction initiatives have moved from the planning process to reality in many federal, state, and local governments throughout the world. Legislative approaches and carbon management strategies have, thus, become a topic of great interest in businesses, industries, and local communities across the globe that will be impacted by both the effects of climate change and the cost to mitigate carbon emissions. In recent years, various legislative programs and mitigation approaches have been introduced with the intent to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) pollutants emitted into the atmosphere that have global warming potentials above thresholds of concern. The major driver for legislative approaches to mitigate emissions of these pollutants is the belief that continued increases of the GHG emissions from man-made sources (e.g., industrial emission sources, electricity generation facilities, on-road and off-road mobile transportation sources, etc.) are contributing to increases in global temperatures that could have dramatic climate and, subsequently, environmental impacts. The myriad of legislative approaches and regulatory programs in consideration or already implemented are vast, diverse, ever-changing, and excessively politically charged. The intent of this chapter is to summarize the historical background of climate change policy development and potential legislative strategies, review current climate change legislation proposals and regulatory programs including major regional and international GHG emission reduction programs in place or in development, and discuss emerging trends in worldwide climate change legislation.

This chapter sheds some light on the international efforts to curb the global warming threat. The dominant climate agreement to date is the Kyoto Protocol, although competing – or allegedly complement – international climate protection schemes like the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate also exist. After describing the main features of these schemes and their failure to establish an efficient global climate protection regime, the disincentives for countries to commit to efficient climate protection efforts in an international agreement are elaborated on. The negotiation situation faced by national governments is depicted in game theoretic settings and private ancillary benefits of climate policy are identified to raise the likelihood for countries joining an international agreement. Yet, it remains quite disputable to which extent ancillary benefits can be an impetus for more action in international climate policy. Finally, after dedicating a large part of the chapter to agreements that, like the Kyoto Protocol, stipulate abatement quantities, alternative schemes are presented which were coined “price ducks” since they influence the effective prices of climate protection. By manipulating prices, e.g., via an international carbon tax, incentives are generated for producing higher climate protection levels. Recently, so-called matching schemes influencing effective prices of climate protection raised much attention in the scientific literature. Such schemes may attenuate free- or easy-rider incentives in international climate policy and may even induce a globally efficient climate protection level.

This chapter offers a survey of important factors for the consideration of the moral obligations involved in confronting the challenges of climate change. The first step is to identify as carefully as possible what is known about climate change science, predictions, concerns, models, and both mitigation and adaptation efforts. While the present volume is focused primarily on the mitigation side of reactions to climate change, these mitigation efforts ought to be planned in part with reference to what options and actions are available, likely, and desirable for adaptation. Section “Understanding Climate Change,” therefore, provides an overview of current understanding of climate change with careful definitions of terminology and concepts along with presentation of the increasingly strong evidence that validates growing concern about climate change and its probable consequences. Section “Uncertainties and Moral Obligations Despite Them” addresses the kinds of uncertainty at issue when it comes to climate science. The fact that there are uncertainties involved in the understanding of climate change will be shown to be consistent with there being moral obligations to address climate change, obligations that include expanding the knowledge of the subject, developing plans for a variety of possible adaptation needs, and studying further the various options for mitigation and their myriad costs. Section “Traditions and New Developments in Environmental Ethics” covers a number of moral considerations for climate change mitigation, opening with an examination of the traditional approaches to environmental ethics, then presenting three pressing areas of concern for mitigation efforts: differential levels of responsibility for action that effects the whole globe; the dangers of causing greater harm than is resolved; and the motivating force of diminishing and increasingly expensive fossil fuels that will necessitate and likely speed up innovation in energy production and consumption that will be required for human beings to survive once fossil fuels are exhausted.

News media portrayals of climate change have strongly influenced personal and global efforts to mitigate it through news production, individual media consumption, and personal engagement. This chapter explores the media framing of mitigation strategies, including the effects of media routines, factors that drive news coverage, the influences of claims-makers, scientists, and other information sources, the role of scientific literacy in interpreting climate change stories, and specific messages that mobilize action or paralysis. It also examines how journalists often explain complex climate science and legitimize sources, how audiences process competing messages about scientific uncertainty, how climate stories compete with other issues for public attention, how large-scale economic and political factors shape news production, and how the media can engage public audiences in climate change issues.

The vast expansion of economic activity beginning in the twentieth century and continuing today is the predominant cause of the environmental decline that has occurred to date worldwide. This activity is consuming vast quantities of resources from the environment and returning to the environment vast quantities of waste products. The damages are already huge and are on a path to be ruinous in the future. Yet the world economy, now increasingly integrated and globalized, is poised for unprecedented growth. The engine of this growth is modern capitalism: the worldwide commitment to economic growth at almost any cost; enormous investment in technologies designed with little regard for the environment; powerful corporate interests whose overriding objective is to grow by generating increasingly greater profit, including profit from avoiding the environmental impact and cleanup costs they create; governments that are either yielding or promoting corporate interests and the growth imperative; rampant consumerism spurred by sophisticated advertising; economic activity is so large in scale that its impact may undermine the planet’s ability to sustain life ‎unless something is immediately done. This chapter explores the fundamental factors responsible for this growth imperative, which led to this pathetic situation and then suggests a future remedy to emerge from this state. After a brief introduction to ecology, economy, and economic growth and ecosystem concepts, the effect of economic activities on the global ecological situation is assessed. Poverty and population growth are discussed as drivers of social unsustainability. The concept of Sustainable Development is then introduced and the compatibility of a market-based capitalist economic system with sustainability is reviewed. Several reforms/alternatives to the present economic system proposed in the literature are discussed to promote sustainability. The case of intergenerational equity and discounting the future is critically discussed in the light of systems thinking. Recent advances in hierarchical systems approach concepts in systems theory are employed to argue against the economic growth concept of the capitalist economic system. After that, the cause of all the ills – the built-in usurious system in the capitalist economy – is discussed in greater detail. Before concluding with future directions, the general belief in science and technology that “science can save the future” that it has the ability to provide humanity with the knowledge and understanding to manage Earth’s natural resources is critically discussed and the technological phenomenon is reviewed under the light of sustainability. Finally, the concept of a “fair and just” economic system is introduced for sustainable development of humanity and future directions are given for its realization.

Climate change is being exacerbated by the emissions of globe-warming greenhouse gases (GHGs) as a consequence of economic activities associated with energy, industry, transportation, and land use. From an economic viewpoint, the Earth’s climate is a public good, and pollution a negative externality; such change therefore constitutes market failure. Controlling air pollution by utilizing economic mechanisms represents an important change in environmental thinking – literally a paradigm shift away from historical command-and-control (CAC) engineering systems. Today, this new approach is being utilized to mitigate the emissions of GHGs, addressing the pollution externality by putting a price on carbon. The international carbon market, largely developed as a result of the Kyoto Protocol, had a total value of $144 billion in 2009. The largest component of that market, the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), was worth $118 billion; it represents a regional market designed to assist Europe in achieving compliance with the Protocol’s requirements, and also has links to the Protocol’s project-based mechanisms, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) which help minimize compliance costs. These project-based components themselves were valued at $2.7 billion and $354 million, respectively. Further, other carbon markets created in numerous countries (e.g., the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative [RGGI] in the USA and the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme in New South Wales, Australia) were worth $2.3 billion, while the global voluntary market was estimated to be in the $350–$400 million range (a significant drop from the previous year’s $700 million figure). This chapter discusses the structure of these emissions trading carbon markets, the theory behind their development, their historical evolution, ongoing governance challenges, and future prospects.

Since climate change has become an international concern, most of the developed countries have attempted to adopt energy policies to mitigate global warming and its side effects in the last years. The current energy model, based on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, has been the basis for the functioning and development of modern industrial society. Nevertheless, the threats of this model (environmental problems, exhaustion of fossil sources, possible inflation process and loss of competitiveness, dependency toward energy export countries, etc.) have forced a change in the EU’s traditional energy strategy (which was focused on the security of supply). The present energy model of the European Union, which supports its economic growth and prosperity, is 80% dependent on fossils fuels [1] and it is increasingly dependent on energy imported from Non-EU member countries, creating economic, social, political, and other risks for the Union. From the 1990s, the key objectives of the EU have been security of supply, competitiveness, and environmental protection, making renewable energy sources and energy efficiency the basis for its new energy strategy in the EU. However the lack of a common energy framework seems to have been an obstacle to reach those objectives. Therefore, the European Union has recently adopted new directives and instruments to create a unique energy framework in order to reach the mentioned targets but also to become the world leader in the impulse of renewable energy sources and in the employment of energy efficiency technologies.In this work the main problems of the conventional energy model (CEM) are explained. The basis, obstacles, and challenges for implementing a more sustainable energy model are also analyzed. Likewise, due to the strategic importance of the European Union leadership in developing and implementing new instruments and policies to mitigate climate change, this work is focused in its energy strategy. Thus, the recent energy directives and other measures adopted by the EU are discussed.

For the past 50 or more years, society has been increasingly reliant on the products of the organic chemical industry to supply the clothes we wear, the food we eat, our health, housing, transportation, security, and other commodities. Approximately 92% of organic chemical products are produced from petroleum, that is, fossil, or mineral, oil, and gas. In addition, these same resources are generally used to provide the large quantities of process heat and power needed by the industry. In the modern petrochemical industry, oil and gas inputs for both raw material and process energy compose around 50% of the operating costs.The result is that not only is the chemical industry (including petrochemicals) the industrial sector with the highest emissions worldwide, it is also very vulnerable to variations in fossil fuel prices and carbon prices. Thus, efficiency has long been a major factor in determining competitiveness in petrochemicals, and the sector has a high success rate in reducing its energy intensity. Despite this, over the past decade, while total use of oil has grown globally at a rate of 1.4% per year over, the use of oil for chemical feedstocks has grown at about 4.0% per year. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in an industry that is so dependent on fossil fuels presents a significant challenge that has begun to receive serious attention from researchers and businesses alike.This chapter introduces the history of the modern chemical industry and the establishment of its close relationship with the oil industry – a relationship that has recently come under strain. It goes on to describe some of the major chemical processes, their GHG emissions, and their geographical variations. The main focus of the chapter is a discussion of the benefits and challenges of three main technological mitigation options: efficiency gains, CO₂ capture and storage, and feedstock switching. The interaction of these options with the main climate policy instruments in Europe, and worldwide, is considered.The concept of “biorefining” for bio-based chemicals is given particular prominence for its potential to deliver renewability, low CO₂, and energy/feedstock security in the long term. However, establishing new production routes based on biomass in Europe is shown to face considerable social, technical, and economic obstacles to reaching a scale that can contribute valuable emissions reductions.

“Cleantech” is being widely used to replace “Green Technology.” It describes a group of emerging technologies and industries, based on principles of physics, chemistry, biology, and resource efficiency, new paradigms in energy, and water conservation. The scope of this field includes large-scale infrastructure projects as well as innovative technologies. The term Cleantech is also often associated with venture capital (VC) investment. The goal of this chapter is to provide readers with an overview of the scope and trends in venture-capital-funded innovation in Cleantech, how to seek VC funding, and Cleantech implications on world climate change.This chapter addresses the basics of venture capital and the dynamic field of Cleantech. Major topics covered include: (1) VC Investment Trend based on the volume of funds invested and the number of projects funded chronologically; (2) The scope of Cleantech encompassing renewable energy, energy efficiency, green building, transportation, smart power, smart grid and energy storage, air, water, and waste; (3) Cleantech Technology Trend through a discussion of the top VC-funded Cleantech start-ups and selected high-profile projects, a total of 61 companies in nine technology categories; (4) Geographic Trend addressing the status in western nations as well as in emerging countries and highlighting the status of Silicon Valley in California, now the heart of Cleantech innovation; (5) Concluding Remark discusses globalization of Cleantech as an infrastructure project and the key to the deployment of Cleantech innovations.The appendix provides a brief introduction of how to apply for VC funding and lists of major venture capital companies in key nations.

By the term ‘carbon liability’, we mean a calculation of value approximating to the economic externalities of carbon emissions in the global economy, in relation to the totality of global economic activity. As a consequence of over two centuries of industrialization, the global carbon budget and its associated global balance sheet of carbon have clearly diverged from a state of natural equilibrium. Three material identifiable, types of carbon risk have emerged; related to regulation, to physical processes and to market-related risk. ‘Cap-and-trade’ schemes are an important economic mechanism aiding both the rectification of these imbalances and the restoration of a natural carbon cycle disrupted by emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) in both developed and emerging economies. Such schemes establish an economic value to carbon through open market trading. They serve to quantify and to reduce carbon risk, in accordance with appropriate and efficient economic regulation. Monetizing carbon liability through these market mechanisms is a means to place boundaries on, and thus to mitigate, the uncertainties of carbon liability. This process of monetization may also transform market risk into an opportunity for economic exploitation.

Global climate change has profound effects on biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. This chapter summarizes the existing state of knowledge on how climate change affects biogeochemical cycling, specifically carbon cycling, as the carbon cycling has long been recognized as important for understanding climate change. The review draws largely on knowledge gained from manipulated experiments, modeling, and meta-analysis studies. This chapter starts with a brief description of current changes in several climate factors such as atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration, temperature, precipitation, and ozone (O₃) and their effects on terrestrial ecosystems. Then approaches commonly applied in global change research such as natural observation, experiment, ecosystem modeling, and meta-analysis are described. The advantages and disadvantages of these approaches and general procedures are also summarized. The impacts of global change such as elevated CO₂, global warming, and changes in precipitation and O₃ on carbon cycling in different terrestrial ecosystems are further synthesized. In addition, issues related to global climate change such as single factor versus multiple factor studies, graduate versus step increase experiments, and inverse modeling are briefly discussed. At the end of the chapter, some recommendations for future global change research in terrestrial ecosystems are provided.

Because unsteady and multiscale hydrodynamic and morphodynamic processes are dominant in coastal/estuarine zones, numerical simulation of dynamic responses to sea-level rise and storms becomes the most effective approach to systematically assess the impacts of hazardous storms under the future sea-level rise. Thus, this chapter focuses on the following three objectives: (1) investigation of the impacts of hazardous storms and sea-level rise on coasts and estuaries due to climate change, (2) reviews of impact assessment approaches by using numerical simulation models, and (3) demonstrations of impact assessment of coastal floods and erosions under the combined conditions of hazardous storms (extreme events) and the future sea-level rise scenarios. It emphasizes a system approach for the impact assessment of sea-level rise by using integrated coastal process models, which are widely used to simulate coastal/estuarine hydrodynamic and morphodynamic processes to predict flooding/inundation and coastline erosion/deposition under complex hydrological, morphological, oceanographic, and meteorological conditions. It also demonstrates an application of an integrated coastal model, CCHE2D-Coast, to simulate waves, tides, sediment transport, and morphological changes in an estuary and to predict the hydrodynamic and morphodynamic impacts of hazardous storms and five hypothetical sea-level rise scenarios. It shows that the integrated physical-process modeling technique is the only effective method to accurately predict the impact of sea-level rise under natural dynamic conditions of sea and coast and to facilitate coastal flood management, erosion protection, and infrastructure designing/planning against extreme hydrological conditions and climate changes.

Biodiversity, the diversity of living things on Earth, is a critical measure of the Earth’s health. Biodiversity provides immense direct benefits to humans, with at least 40% of the world’s economy being derived from biological resources. Maintaining biodiversity provides greater food security, opportunities for economic development, and provides a foundation for new pharmaceuticals and other medical advances. Ironically, maintaining biodiversity levels and functioning ecosystems is critical to ameliorating climate change; yet, climate change is expected to cause serious disruptions to Earth’s ecological systems, resulting in an overall loss of biodiversity and a reduction in the goods and services provided to humans. Extinction rates in the future are very difficult to predict. However, with immediate and decisive action to mitigate climate change, losses of biodiversity can be minimized and humans can continue to reap many of the benefits nature provides; business as usual scenarios will likely lead to the loss of >50% of all plant and animal species on Earth and the collapse of many ecosystems worldwide. Such losses will drastically lower the quality of life for humans and will take millions of years to reverse.

Water quality and fish habitat models were developed and applied to investigate impacts of future climate change in aquatic systems, mainly lakes in this study. Long-term daily water temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) profiles and ice/snow covers on lakes were simulated for 27 types of small lakes (surface area up to 10 km2) at 209 geographic locations in the contiguous USA under past (1961–1979) and projected 2 × CO₂ climate conditions using a process-oriented, dynamic, one-dimensional, year-round lake water quality model (MINLAKE96). The projected climate scenario was based on the output from the second generation general circulation model (GCM 2.0) for a doubling of atmospheric CO₂ (2 × CO₂). The 2 × CO₂ climate scenario is projected to increase lake surface temperatures by up to 5.2°C when GCM 2.0 projects an increase of mean annual air temperature up to 6.7°C. Summer stratification in lakes is projected to last up to 66 days longer, and this leads to a longer period of anoxic hypolimnetic conditions that will result in various negative environmental and ecological impacts on lakes. Projected climate warming has a strong impact on ecological conditions in ice-covered lakes, i.e., shorter ice cover period (up to 90 days) and reductions in snow and ice thickness were projected. Winterkill of fish in shallow, eutrophic and mesotrophic, ice-covered lakes is projected to disappear under a 2 × CO₂ climate scenario. Climate warming is also projected to reduce the number of geographic locations in the contiguous USA where lakes have suitable cold- and cool-water fish habitat, by up to 45% and 30%, respectively. Warm-water fish habitat is projected to extend in lakes over the entire contiguous USA, and this is a positive impact of climate warming. A recent study to identify potential refuge lakes important for sustaining cisco habitat under climate warming scenarios is summarized.

In recent decades, global climate change has continued to cause devastating impacts to various places on Earth. Geographic and socioeconomic characteristics in East Africa (EA) and South America (SA) make the regions among the most vulnerable to the current temperature variations attracting several studies with wider implications. Presently, in these two regions, remarkable evidence of climate change includes repeated droughts and increase in dry lands affecting water and food availability for humans, livestock, and wildlife (EA), intensification of climate-sensitive diseases, sea level rise, fast retreat of glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount Kenya in Kenya, and Andeans Mountains of South America, change in the rainfall patterns in the Amazon forests and in the whole of EA, and increasing of the frequency and intensity of the El Niño and La Niña phenomenon in the South Pacific that affect both EA and SA, among others. Although these two regions are not major contributors of greenhouse gases (GHGs), the poor conservation of strategic ecosystems through deforestation of the Amazon forests in SA and various forests in EA coupled with intensification of agriculture, land degradation, rapid rates of urbanization and industrialization all driven by rapid population increase are putting a strain on valuable natural resources whose conservation would be critical in mitigating climate change. Adaptation measures have been constrained by climate change impacts. In both regions, poverty is widespread and climate change impacts have jeopardized most poverty alleviation initiatives including realization of some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Moreover, both regions have a strong dependency on rain-fed agriculture for economic development with hydroelectricity and biomass as main sources of energy. Consequently, adaptation measures are required for all the sectors, but especially in agriculture, health, and energy where the loss of soil productivity, increasing spread of climate-sensitive diseases, reduction of water and energy source supply are already threatening the social and economic security of both regions. Both regions have a wealth of indigenous knowledge and coping mechanisms of various local communities that should be incorporated into conventional adaptation measures of climate change. This chapter describes the main climate change impacts in EA and SA, vulnerabilities thereon, and adaptation measures that offer an opportunity to the two regions to develop in a sustainable way.

Transportation of people and of goods plays an important role in modern life. It is a major source of anthropogenic CO₂. This chapter, after introducing some fundamentals of natural climate fluctuations as caused by Milankovitch cycles, describes the causes and consequences of manmade climate change and the motivation for increased fuel efficiency in transportation systems. To this end, contemporary and future ground-based and air-based transportation technologies are discussed. It is shown that concepts that were already given up, such as turbine-driven cars, might be worthwhile for further studies. Alternative fuels such as hydrogen, ethanol and biofuels and alternative power sources, e.g., compressed air engines and fuel cells, are presented from various perspectives. The chapter also addresses the contribution of CO₂ emissions of the supply chain and over the entire life cycle for different transportation technologies.

The use of thermal insulations to reduce heat flow across the building envelope has been an accepted energy conservation strategy for many decades. Materials available for use as building insulation include naturally occurring fibers and particles, man-made fibers, reflective systems, cellular plastics, evacuated systems, aerogels, and hybrid insulations that combine two or more types of insulation. This chapter discusses the basic theory of insulation and the way they are evaluated. Performance limitations are identified and discussion of the performance of building elements that represent combinations of insulation and other building material are contained in this chapter. The importance of air infiltration and moisture control is discussed. The language associated with thermal insulation technology and key thermal properties have been included to help the reader use the vast literature associated with building thermal insulation.

The efficient use of energy is important to restrain the emission of greenhouse effect gases. Thermal energy storage and heat transport technology enable to utilize the renewable energy and the waste heat which are generally unstable, maldistributed, and thin. They also enable to operate energy devices at a high efficient condition. This chapter introduces some basic research and development activities of thermal energy storage and heat transport, especially latent heat utilization. First, the following fundamental knowledge of thermal energy storage is explained: (1) the functions of thermal energy storage, (2) the classification of storage methods, (3) the characteristics of thermal energy storage materials especially phase change materials (PCMs), and (4) the constitutions of thermal energy storage devices. Other characteristics and challenges of latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) which utilize supercooling phenomenon are also explained. Second, several examples of the practical use of LHTES including the utilization of snow and ice are discussed. In the same way, several characteristics and examples of the practical use of the heat transport using latent heat are also explained. Furthermore, recent developments on the following research subjects are introduced: (1) thermal energy storage for hot water supply using the supercooling phenomenon of sugar alcohol, (2) heat storage for space heating using the supercooling of hydrate, (3) the improvement of thermal characteristics of paraffin wax as a PCM, (4) a steam accumulator using sugar alcohol, (5) pipeless heat transport using sugar alcohol or hydrate, and (6) heat transport method using the microencapsulated PCM slurry.

Consuming about 20% of total energy annually in the USA (according to DOE in 1994), the chemical industry is amajor source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It has been widely recognized that asignificant reduction of energy consumption and GHG emissions in chemical processes must implement advanced heat integration technologies in aholistic way.Heat integration is afamily of technologies for improving energy efficiency. The technologies can be applied to the design of heat exchanger networks, heat-integrated reaction-separation systems, etc.Pinch analysis is the foundation of heat integration. In this chapter, the applicability of pinch technology in GHG emission reduction is reviewed first. Furthermore, the concept of “total site,” which is valuable for energy targeting and integration at regional level, is described. A“total site” includes not only traditional industrial processes, but also commercial and residential energy users into the scope.Then more advanced concepts in heat integration are introduced. The concepts are developed based on the observation of problems arising in heat integration applications – stability of heat-integrated systems in operation. The known modeling work addressing these issues will be reviewed thoroughly. The basic principles on how the disturbance-propagation-rejection models for these major chemical processing systems can be adopted in process synthesis and analysis stages will be discussed.The concept of “total site” has been further extended to greenhouse gas emission targeting and reduction. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission focused pinch analysis methodology is reviewed, which is valuable for obtaining the optimal energy resource mix of fossil fuel and renewable energy for the regional or national energy sector.

Real-time optimization takes place practically in all power plants. The main task of all automatic controllers is to assure the optimal values of their controlled variables under all circumstances. The quality of operation of these controllers has evidently a crucial effect on the way of operation of the entire power plant. Whether a power plant – based on either renewable resources or fossil fuels – is operated in a highly effective way, or is a rather resource-consuming one, is evidently of very high importance regarding emissions and other ecological aspects. This fact is the reason for discussing in this chapter the possible ways for increasing the level of control quality in power plants.An overview will be given at the beginning about the ways and tools the advanced control methods offer – in case of their more intensive applications in power plants – for protecting the environment and for mitigating the climate change. It will be followed by a concise but goal-oriented introduction of the most relevant control methods together with their evaluations regarding the aspects of their applicabilities in power plants. Because the way toward obtaining the environmental benefits offered by the advanced control methods is not a trivial one, some considerations, aspects, and hints will be given on this issue in the next part. A few successful power plant applications will be introduced afterward, and the actual main development directions will be outlined at the very end of this chapter.

This chapter discusses mobile and area sources of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The CO₂ emissions from mobile sources accounted globally for 23% of world energy-related GHG emissions in 2004. In the United States, the CO₂ emissions in 2004 from mobile sources included 28% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions and the missions from mobile sources grew 29% between 1990 and 2004. The CO₂ emissions for several megacities, the carbon footprint expressed in CO₂, and the CO₂ per capita used as a sustainability scale are also reviewed. Traffic congestion and gridlock in most urban areas and cities have grown substantially worse over the years, causing commuters to waste millions of hours in traffic jams. The resulting vehicle emissions have adverse impacts on the environment, both in air quality degradation and increases in GHG. Examples are presented on contributions of built environment and transportation-related air pollution and GHG emissions from mobile sources, cities, and other populated areas.The heat-island effect causes an increase in surface temperature and air temperature in the built-up areas of a city. Urban sprawl and associated transportation-related emissions also tend to increase area temperature. An increase in air temperature results in a higher rate of photochemical reactions that form ground-level ozone and smog during hot summer days. Additionally, it requires extra electricity to cool down buildings in summer days, resulting in increased energy demands, larger air-conditioning bills, and elevated emissions of GHG and ozone precursors.Sustainable multimodal transportation network and urban infrastructure facilities are warranted to support urban communities in view of the demand of energy, reduce public health hazards resulting from air pollution and urban smog, and mitigate adverse impacts of GHG emissions on the environment. Innovative geospatial applications of high-resolution satellite imageries are presented to estimate built-up area and traffic volume. Real-time intelligent transportation system technologies can also improve traffic flow, reduce congestion and air pollution, and decrease GHG emissions. Government agencies and cities worldwide can use CO₂ emission per capita sustainability scale for evaluating effectiveness of sustainable transportation and development policies.

The efficient use of energy, or energy efficiency, has been widely recognized as an ample and cost-efficient means to save energy and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Up to one third of the worldwide energy demand in 2050 can be saved by energy efficiency measures. In this chapter, several important aspects of energy efficiency are addressed. After an introduction and definition of energy efficiency, historic development, state-of-the-art, and future trends of energy efficiency are presented in the light of life cycle assessment and total cost of ownership considerations. Energy efficiency in various sectors, viz. energy production, energy transmission and storage, transportation, industry, buildings, appliances, and others, is reviewed. Concurrent measures such as recycling or novel materials are also discussed and touched upon. Energy conservation is covered in the final section of this chapter. References for deeper study are provided with an emphasis on guidelines on how to improve energy efficiency. Given the breadth of the subject, only exemplary coverage can be aimed for. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the significance of energy efficiency and to provide cross-learnings from achievements in different sectors so that energy efficiency in the readers’ own facilities and installations can be assessed and improved with cost-effective means as a contribution to climate change mitigation, cost savings, and improved economic competitiveness.

The world has a wide variety of biofeedstocks. Biomass is a term used to describe any material of recent biological origin, including plant materials such as trees, grasses, agricultural crops, or animal manure. In this chapter, the formation of biomass by photosynthesis and the different mechanisms of photosynthesis giving rise to biomass classification are discussed. Then, these classifications and composition of biomass are explained. The various methods used to make biomass amenable for energy, fuel, and chemical production are discussed next. These methods include pretreatment of biomass, biochemical routes of conversion like fermentation, anaerobic digestion, transesterification, and thermochemical routes like gasification and pyrolysis. An overview of current and future biomass feedstock materials, for example, algae, perennial grass, and other forms of genetically modified plants, is described including the current feedstock availability in United States.

Biomass can provide both hydrocarbon fuels and chemical compounds such as alcohols, gums, sugars, lipid-based products, etc. Biomass-derived fuels have acquired a lot of attention during recent years because of the abundance of supply of resources and lower green house gas emissions. Grasses, agricultural residues, animal residues and waste, used oils, etc., can be used as starting materials in the production of biofuels. Ethanol and biodiesel have found greatest application and contribute significantly to fuels. However there is growing interest in other alternatives: hydrogen, methane, butanol, renewable diesel, and petroleum compatible fuels from advanced catalytic biotech processes. Characteristics of various feedstocks and fuels, processes for conversion of biomass to biofuels, the physical, chemical factors and limitations effecting the conversion of biomass to fuels are discussed in this chapter. Process parameters include pH, temperature, and residence time. Additionally, chemical parameters include carbon source, nutrients, acid and alkaline hydrolysis agents, and phenolic inhibitors and sugars generated within the process. Several limitations to bioconversion of biomass are described such as size reduction, crystallinity, by-product inhibition to fermentation, deactivation of cellulases, ethanol tolerance by yeast, and co-fermentation of various sugars. Recent innovations and future developments in recombinant DNA technology and protein engineering are aimed at overcoming limitations to bioconversion. Understanding the limitations and applying suitable biotechnological applications will support future developments for producing biofuels.

Bioenergy is presently the largest global contributor of renewable energy. Biomass thermal conversion has significant potential to expand in the production of heat, electricity, and fuels for transport. In addition, energy from biomass can contribute significantly toward the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and alleviating problems related to climate change. There are three main thermal processes – combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis – to convert the biomass into various energy products.Combustion is well established and widely practiced with many examples of dedicated plant and co-firing applications. At present, biomass co-firing in modern coal power plants is the most cost-effective biomass use for power generation. Due to feedstock availability issues, dedicated biomass plants for combined heat and power (CHP) are typically of smaller size.Gasification provides a competitive way to convert diverse, highly distributed and low-value lignocellulosic biomass to syngas for combined heat and power generation, synthesis of liquid fuels, and production of hydrogen (H₂). A number of gasifier configurations have been developed. Biomass integrated gasification combined cycles (BIGCC) using black-liquor are already in use. Gasification can also co-produce liquid fuels, and such advanced technologies are currently being investigated in research and pilot plants.Pyrolysis is thermal destruction of biomass in the absence of air/oxygen to produce liquid bio-oil, syngas, and charcoal. Fast pyrolysis for liquid fuel production is currently of particular interest because liquid fuel can be stored and transported more easily and at lower cost than solid biomass. Pyrolysis technology is currently at the demonstration stage, and technologies for upgrading the bio-oil to transport fuels are applied at the R&D and pilot stage.This chapter provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge on biomass thermal conversion: the recent breakthrough in the technology, the current research and development activities, and challenges associated with its increased deployment.

The different biomass conversion routes to chemicals will be described in this chapter. Chapter 25, “Biomass as Feedstock,” gives an overview of the methods used to obtain chemicals from biomass. These processes along with some other chemical conversions can be used for the manufacture of chemicals from biomass. A list of chemicals compiled based on the carbon number in the chemicals will be discussed in this chapter. Some of these chemicals are presently made from nonrenewable feedstock like natural gas and petroleum while others are new chemicals that have potential to replace nonrenewable feedstock-based chemicals. Transesterification process is used to produce propylene chain of chemicals from glycerin. Fermentation is used to produce ethanol which is converted to ethylene and can be used for ethylene chain of chemicals. The chemicals discussed in this chapter include recent advances in chemistry and processes discussed include new frontiers for research in biomass to chemical production.

Hydrogen (H₂) is mainly used in chemical industry currently. In the near future it will also become a significant fuel due to advantages of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, enhanced energy security, and increased energy efficiency. To meet future demand, sufficient H₂ production in an environmentally and economically benign manner is the major challenge. This chapter provides an overview of H₂ production pathways from fossil hydrocarbons, renewable resources (mainly biomass), and water. And high purity H₂ production by the novel CO₂ sorption-enhanced gasification is highlighted. The current research activities, recent breakthrough, and challenges of various H₂ production technologies are all presented.Fossil hydrocarbons account for 96% of total H₂ production in the world. Steam methane reforming, oil reforming, and coal gasification are the most common methods and all technologies have been commercially available. However, H₂ produced from fossil fuel is nonrenewable and results in significant CO₂ emissions, which will limit its utilization.H₂ produced from biomass is renewable and CO₂ neutral. Biomass thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis and gasification have been widely investigated and will probably be economically competitive with steam methane reforming. However, research on biomass biological processes such as photolysis, dark fermentation, photo-fermentation, etc., are in laboratory scale and the practical applications still need to be demonstrated.H₂ from water splitting is also attractive because water is widely available and very convenient to use. However, water-splitting technologies, including electrolysis, thermolysis, and photoelectrolysis, is more expensive than using large-scale fuel processing technologies and large improvement in system efficiency is necessary.CO₂ sorption-enhanced gasification is the core unit of zero emission systems. It has been thermodynamically and experimentally demonstrated to produce H₂ with purity over 90% from both fossil hydrocarbons and biomass. The major challenge is that the reactivity of CO₂ sorbents decays through multi calcination–carbonation cycles.

Nuclear energy is attracting revived interest as a potential alternate for electric power generation in the event of increased concerns about global warming. Compared to energy produced by combustion of a carbon atom in coal, fission of a U-235 atom will produce about ten million times more energy. However, storage of the nuclear waste is an environmental issue. This chapter has four sections with a major focus on introduction of nuclear power plants and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels. Different nuclear fuel cycles and nuclear power reactors are introduced in the first section and the cost-benefits of different energy sources are compared. Fuel burnup and formation of fission products are discussed along with operational impacts and risk analyses in the second section. Third section discusses about design of nuclear structural components and various degradation modes. Section four discusses reprocessing issues of nuclear spent fuels. Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel may be an economically viable option, and it reduces high-radioactive load in the nuclear waste repositories as well. However, there is a concern about proliferation of weapons-grade plutonium separated during reprocessing. Containment of radio nuclides in different waste-forms is also discussed in this section.

Nuclear Fusion is the power of the sun and all shining stars in the universe. Controlled nuclear fusion toward ultimate energy sources for human beings has been being developed intensively worldwide for this half a century. A fusion power plant is free from concern of exhaustion of fuels and production of CO₂. Therefore it has very attractive potential to be eternal fundamental energy sources and will contribute to resolving problems of climate change. On the other hand, unresolved issues in physics and engineering still remain. It will take another several decades to realize a fusion power plant by integration of advanced science and engineering such as control of high-temperature plasma exceeding 100 million degrees in Celsius and breeding technology of tritium by generated neutrons. The research and development has just entered the phase of engineering demonstration to extract 500 MW of thermal energy from fusion reaction in the 2020s. The demonstration of electric power generation is targeted before 2040.

Historically, the growth and prosperity of human civilization has mainly been propelled by fossil energy (coal and petroleum) usage. Decades of tested and proven technologies has led to a continuous increase in demand for fossil-based fuels. As a result, we are now finding ourselves at the threshold of a critical tipping point where environmental consequences and global climate can be irreversibly affected and hence cannot be ignored. More than ever before, our unending and rapidly growing need for energy has necessitated urgent action on efforts to examine alternative forms of energy sources that are eco-friendly, sustainable, and economical.There are several alternatives to fossil-based fuels. These include biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear options as prominent and possible sources. All these options can assist us with reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Solar energy, being one of them, has the unique potential to meet a broad gamut of current global energy demand. These include domestic applications such as solar-assisted cooking, space, heating, as well as industrial processes such as drying. Solar energy utilization in several key areas such as electricity generation (photovoltaics), clean fuel production (hydrogen), environmental remediation (photocatalytic degradation of pollutants), and reduction of greenhouse gases (CO₂ conversion to value-added chemicals) is also of great interest. A key challenge that must be addressed to boost commercialization of solar energy technologies, and common to these applications, is material properties and solar energy utilization efficiency. To realize large-scale and efficient solar energy utilization, application-based materials with a unique combination of properties have to be developed. The material has to absorb visible light, be cost competitive, composed of earth abundant elements, and nontoxic, all at the same time.This chapter consists of ten sections. The first introduction section consists of a detailed discussion on the importance of energy in human activity, the effects of fossil fuels on climate and human lifestyle, and materials that meet many of the above criteria. The second section provides a short and critical comparison of solar energy with other alternatives. The third section provides a quick review of the basic concepts of solar energy. The commonly employed toolkits used in the characterization of materials for solar energy conversion are discussed in section four. Some of these tools can be used to evaluate specific optical, electronic, and catalytic properties of materials. Section five discusses the main categories of materials that are either commercialized or under development. The challenges to developing new materials for solar energy conversion are addressed in section six. Section seven outlines some of the main strategies to test the promising materials before a large-scale commercialization attempt is initiated. Section eight profiles companies and institutions that are engaged in efforts to evaluate, improve, and commercialize solar energy technologies. This segment provides information about the product from a few representative companies around the world and their niche in the commercial market. Section nineprovides a general outlook into the trend in solar energy utilization, commercialization, and its future. Finally, section ten provides the authors’ concluding perspective about the solar energy as a pathway for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. At the conclusion of this chapter, we have also provided over 100 references that are highly recommended for further in-depth study into various aspects of solar energy.

In spite of several successful alternative energy production installations in recent years, it is difficult to point to more than one or two examples of a modern industrial nation obtaining the bulk of its energy from sources other than oil, coal, and natural gas. Thus a meaningful energy transition from conventional to renewable sources of energy is yet to be realized. It is also reasonable to assume that a full replacement of the energy currently derived from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources is probably impossible over the short term. For example, the prospects for large-scale production of cost-effective renewable electricity remains to be generated utilizing either the wind energy or certain forms of solar energy. These renewable energies face important limitations due to intermittency, remoteness of good resource regions, and scale potential. One of the promising approaches to overcome most of the limitations is to implement many recent advances in solar thermal electricity technology. In this section, various advanced solar thermal technologies are reviewed with an emphasis on new technologies and new approaches for rapid market implementation.The first topic is the conventional parabolic trough collector, which is the most established technology and is under continuing development with the main focus being on the installed cost reductions with modern materials, along with heat storage. This is followed by the recently developed linear Fresnel reflector technologies. In two-axis tracking technologies, the advances in dish-Stirling systems are presented. More recently, the solar thermal electricity applications in two-axis tracking using tower technology is gaining ground, especially with multitower solar array technology. A novel solar chimney technology is also discussed for large-scale power generation. Non-tracking concentrating solar technologies, when used in a cogeneration system, offer low cost electricity, albeit at lower efficiencies – an approach that seems to be most suitable in rural communities.

Electricity is perhaps the most versatile energy carrier in modern economies, and it is therefore fundamentally linked to human and economic development. Electricity growth has outpaced that of any other fuel, leading to ever-increasing shares in the overall mix. This trend is expected to continue throughout the following decades, with large – especially rural – segments of the world population in developing countries climbing the “energy ladder” and becoming connected to power grids (UNDP 2004). Electricity therefore deserves particular attention with regard to its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, which is reflected in the ongoing development of low-carbon technologies for power generation. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide a bridge between detailed technical reports and broad resource and economic assessments on wind power. The following aspects of wind energy are covered: the global potential of the wind resource, technical principles of wind energy converters, capacity and load characteristics, life-cycle characteristics, current scale of deployment, contribution to global electricity supply, cost of electricity output, and future technical challenges. Wind power is the second-strongest-growing of renewable electricity technologies, with recent annual growth rates of about 34%. The technology is mature and simple, and decades of experience exist in a few countries. Due to strong economies of scale, wind turbines have grown to several megawatts per device, and wind farms have now been deployed offshore. The wind energy industry is still small but competitive: 120 GW of installed wind power contributes only about 1.5% or 260 TWh to global electricity generation at average capacity factors of around 25%, and levelised costs between 3 and 7 US¢/kWh, including additional costs brought about by the variability of the wind resource. The technical potential of wind is larger than current global electricity consumption, but the main barrier to widespread wind power deployment is wind variability, which poses limits to grid integration at penetration rates above 20%. Life-cycle emissions for wind power alone are among the lowest for all technologies; however, in order to compare wind energy in a systems view, one needs to consider its low capacity credit: Adding emissions from fossil-fuel balancing and peaking reserves that are required to maintain overall systems reliability places wind power at about 65 g/kWh. Wind power’s contribution to twenty-first century emissions abatement is potentially large at 450–500 Gt CO₂.

While most renewable energies are, directly or indirectly, derived from the sun, geothermal energy originates in the interior of the earth. Geothermal energy is the most stable of the renewable energies because it can be utilized constantly, regardless of weather or season. Geothermal energy can be used not only for power generation, but also for direct heat application. The development of geothermal power generation entered a phase of rapid growth in 2005, and its total-installed capacity worldwide reached 10.7 GW_e in 2010. The capacity of 10.7 GW_e appears small when compared with solar and wind power generation; however, the high-capacity factor of geothermal power plants, which is 0.7–0.9, provides several times greater electricity from the same installed capacity than photovoltaic and wind plants. Direct heat application can be used almost anywhere on land. Geothermal resources are classified into two categories: hydrothermal convection resources and thermal conduction resources. Today’s geothermal power capacity is mainly hydrothermal-based and unevenly distributed in volcanic countries. As a borehole is drilled into deeper formations, formation temperature becomes higher but permeability becomes lower. Hydrothermal convection resources have a limit depth. Rock’s brittle-plastic transition gives a bottom depth to permeability, and it is the absolute limit depth for the hydrothermal convection resources. Enhanced or engineered geothermal systems (EGS), in which fractures are artificially created in less-permeable rocks and heat is extracted by artificially circulating water through the fractures, are still at a demonstration stage, but they will extend geothermal power generation to thermal conduction resources and to depths even deeper than the brittle-plastic transition. Assessment of worldwide geothermal resource potential is still under study. However, an estimate shows that potential is 312 GW_e for hydrothermal resources for electric power generation to a depth of 4 km, 1,500 GW_e for EGS resources to a depth of 10 km, and 4,400 GW_th for direct geothermal use resources. Were 70% of hydrothermal resources, 20% of EGS resources, and 20% of direct use resources to be developed by 2050, it could reduce carbon dioxide emission by 3.17 Gton/year, which is 11% of the present worldwide emission.

Climate change is regarded as the most severe challenge for the human being. The view on accelerating hydropower development and ensuring adequate water storage infrastructure to mitigate and adapt climate change has been widely accepted by the international community. Based on the challenge induced by climate change and the advantages on energy consumption and GHGs emission, the current development status, this chapter describes the importance and significance on development hydropower and ensuring adequate water storage facility for world sustainable development, mitigating and adapting climate change. And it also points out the path on developing water and energy in a reliable, cheap, and environmental-friendly way.

CO₂ capture and geological storage (CCS) is one of the most promising technologies to reduce greenhouse gasgreenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change in a fossil fuel–dependant world. If fully implemented, CCSCCS may contribute to reduce 20% of global emissions from fossil fuels by 2050 and 55% by the end of this century. The complete CCS chain consists of capturing CO₂ from large stationary sources such as coal-fired power plants and heavy industries, and transport and store it in appropriate geological reservoirreservoirs such as petroleum fields, saline aquifersaline aquifers, and coalcoal seams, therefore returning carbon emitted from fossil fuels (as CO₂) back to geological sinks.Recent studies have shown that geological reservoirs can safely store for many centuries the entire GHG global emissions. Here presented a comprehensive summary of the latest advances in CCS research and technologies that can be used to store significant quantities of CO₂ for geological periods of time and, therefore, considerably contribute to GHG emission reduction.

In order to explain the principle of chemical absorption, the equations of vapor–liquid equilibrium are first introduced and the effects on gas solubility caused by temperature and pressure are also covered. Amine-based systems, carbonate-based systems, aqueous ammonia, membranes, enzyme-based systems, and ionic liquids–based system are discussed as the typical and emerging state of the art for chemical absorption. Furthermore, design rule and method are given to help complete the design of typical chemical absorption systems. The key issues to hinder the application of chemical absorption are discussed, such as water-consumption-related issues, environmental effects, and economical factors. Finally, applications and future directions are discussed.

In order to generate pure streams of CO₂ suitable for sequestration/storage, various routes are possible, involving either pre-combustion strategies such as the use of gasification technology combined with shift reactors to produce H₂, or alternatively post-combustion strategies such as CO₂ scrubbing with, for example, amine-based carriers. One of the more direct approaches is to carry out the combustion in pure or nearly pure oxygen–oxy-fuel combustion–to produce primarily CO₂ and H₂O in the combustion gases, resulting in almost complete CO₂ capture. Until recently, the primary avenue for deploying this technology was with conventional pulverized fuel-fired boilers, and there is already one large demonstration plant operating in Europe with more being planned in the future. However, more recently oxy-fired fluidized bed combustion (FBC) has also become increasingly important as a potential technology, offering as it does fuel flexibility and the possibility of firing local or indigenous fuels, including biomass in a CO₂-neutral manner. Both oxy-fuel combustion technologies have been examined here, considering factors such as their economics, and potential for improvement, as well as challenges to the technology, including the need to generate CO₂ streams of suitable purity for pipeline transport to available sequestration sites. Finally, the emission issues for both classes of the technology are discussed.

The chemistry and technology of gasification is presented within the global context of enabling the cleanup of fossil and biomass fuels for energy production. The historical development of gasification is compared and contrasted to combustion processes. While gasification has historically been applied to the production of high-valued chemical products, the focus here is to offset commodity power production using fossil fuel technologies less amenable to carbon capture. For this reason, integrated gasification and combined cycle processes are discussed with respect to electrical power production. The 12 major gasifiers being marketed today are described, some of which are fully deployed while others are in various stages of development. The hydrodynamics and kinetics of each are reviewed along with salient differences in performance, such as gas composition, when using a variety of fuels under different conditions. Critical operational features are discussed including oxidizing media, air or oxygen blown; the system pressure; fuel feedstock; and downstream cleanup. Thermal integration is discussed with respect to its impact on the gasifier performance and gas cleanup is also considered with respect to the removal of potential pollutants and the shifting to environmentally benign transportation and process fuels.

This chapter examines the reaction pathways and the selectivity of the catalysts for the conversion of syngas to liquid hydrocarbons and ethanol fuels. Rh is by far the most active catalyst for ethanol synthesis. Co- and Fe-based catalysts exhibit excellent activity for hydrocarbon fuel synthesis from high H₂/CO and low H₂/CO ratio syngas, respectively. Regardless of the differences in the catalyst selectivity, all of these CO-hydrogenation catalysts produce methane as one of the major products. So far, no approaches are effective in suppressing CH₄ formation. Development of a cost-effective liquid-fuel process from syngas with a low net fuel cycle CO₂ emission requires consideration of (1) the overall system, including the source of raw materials and by-products and (2) analysis of carbon footprint of each step from raw materials to the desired products and undesired by-products.

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) and looping cycles in general represent an important new class of technologies, which can be deployed for direct combustion as well as be used in gasification applications. In this type of system, a solid carrier is used to bring oxygen to the fuel gas, so that it can be subsequently released as a pure CO₂ stream suitable for use, or, more likely, for sequestration. The solid is then regenerated in a reactor using air, so that the technology effectively achieves oxygen separation from air without the use of a cryogenic process or membrane technology. In a sense, cycles using liquids, such as amine scrubbing, could also be regarded as a type of looping cycle, the key being that the carrier must be regenerated and reutilized for as long as possible. However, this chapter will restrict itself to considering the uses of solid carriers only and, more specifically, those in which oxygen is transported and not CO₂ as is the case for calcium looping. Particular focuses of this chapter will be on the use of this technology for H₂ production and gasification applications, as well as its use with solid fuels. Another issue that will be discussed is high-pressure cycles, which are ultimately necessary if such systems are to be integrated into high-efficiency electrical energy cycles.

Fuel cells convert chemical energy to electrical energy via an electrochemical reaction. They are more efficient than traditional heat engine–based power systems and can have zero or near-zero emissions during operation. A leading alternative green energy technology, fuel cells are finding applications in many areas, including transportation, portable power, and stationary power generation. These divergent uses have driven development of several different types of fuel cell technologies. A brief overview of these will be provided in this chapter; however, the focus will be on low-temperature proton exchange membrane (PEM) technologies predominant in portable power and automotive applications. Fuel cell operating principles will be reviewed, focusing on thermodynamics, efficiency, reaction kinetics, and transport phenomena in order to develop a framework for evaluating different fuel cells and comparing them with other power systems. Theoretically, much improvement in fuel cell performance is possible, and is needed along with means of lowering economic costs in order for fuel cells to see more widespread use. Some of the major technical challenges in these regards are outlined along with approaches being investigated to meet these challenges. Life cycle assessment and its application to fuel cells will be discussed to evaluate environmental impacts associated with manufacturing, operation, and disposal.

This chapter describes the concept, electrochemical reactions, and fabrication of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The chapter initially describes how SOFC systems differ from other electrical devices and how they differ from other types of fuel cells; for example, they are all solid state (ceramics), run at high temperature and have the potential for directly running off hydrocarbon fuels. The chapter then studies the basic principles of the fuel cell, and describes each of the components in more detail (the anode, cathode, and electrolyte). The discussion then moves on to how single SOFC’s can be stacked in a number of ways, to form systems, and what the advantages and disadvantages of each is. Finally, the chapter discusses one such SOFC system in more detail, that of the microtubular SOFC. Here the chapter examines how these microtubes are made, what they are made from, and how they have the potential for running at low temperature for small applications such as auxiliary power units (APU), for example. The paper then concludes with some micro and macro-modeling on the microtubular SOFC, describing issues such as mass and thermal transport, the effect of altering a number of parameters, and how the modeling results compare to real data. The chapter concludes with some future directions on solid oxide fuel cells.

Molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) is a high-temperature fuel cell. Because of high-temperature operation, various fuel gases can be widely used and internal reforming of hydrocarbon fuel is also possible, resulting in improving fuel utilization and providing higher power generation efficiency. Many MCFC plants are being installed as the stationary cogeneration power supply using various fuels in various countries in the world, and among them, the world’s largest fuel cell power plant has 2.8 MW electric capacity. The power generation efficiency of the systems including smaller 300 kW units reaches 47% (LHV, net, same as above unless otherwise noted). In addition, the hybrid systems which contain both MCFC and gas turbine have been demonstrated, and a new carbon dioxide (CO₂) recovering hybrid system concept with extremely high value of 77% efficiency is proposed. The advantage of MCFC is not only the use of city gas but also the use of digestion gas from the sewage disposal plant. In the future, it is expected to develop a large-scale centralized electric power generating plant using the coal gasification gas. The MCFC is one of the key technologies to reduce CO₂ emission for the future.

Photocatalytic water splitting, which involves the simultaneous reduction and oxidation of water producing hydrogen and oxygen gas, provides a means of harnessing the sun’s power to generate an energy source in a clean and renewable fashion. Photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to form hydrocarbons such as methane not only promises reduced emission of an important greenhouse but also a new source of fuel. Concerns over the effects of global climate change and the eventual demise of fossil fuels makes the search for clean alternative energy sources a top priority. This chapter details the progress in these two increasingly important areas: hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting and photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction.

In recent years, non-CO₂ greenhouse gases (NCGGs), including methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆), have gained attention due to their higher global warming potentials (GWPs) and abundance of cost-effective and readily implementable technological options available for achieving significant emission reductions.A project titled Clearinghouse of Technological Options for Reducing Anthropogenic Non-CO ₂ GHG Emissions from All Sectors was recently conducted. The overall objective of the project was to develop a clearinghouse of technological options for reducing anthropogenic NCGG emissions. The findings of the project help to better characterize cost-effective opportunities for emission reductions of NCGGs. Employment of an appropriate control technology for a given source would achieve a net reduction in NCGG emissions as well as its contribution to climate change. This chapter of the handbook extracts relevant data and information on the technological options for reducing non-CO₂ GHG emissions from the aforementioned project report.

Thermoacoustic heat engines offer mechanically simple energy conversion that can utilize a wide variety of heat sources – including solar energy, biomass, and even the “waste” heat from internal combustion engines and industrial processes. This chapter will address the gas thermodynamics that enable such machines and discuss the practical elements that comprise thermoacoustic machines that act either as a converter of heat energy to another form of energy (such as electrical or mechanical energy) or as a heat pump that “moves” heat from a cold region to a warmer one. The distinction between the two topologies of thermoacoustic machines, stack-based and regenerator-based, will also be clarified and the differences between the two made clear. Finally, the latter portion of the chapter will discuss existing and potential applications for thermoacoustic machines.

Catalytic technologies for the abatement of greenhouse gases (GHGs) can effectively limit the increasing tropospheric concentration of GHGs and reduce their contribution to global warming. After introducing the general possible applications of catalytic technologies for GHG abatement, two specific cases are discussed: (1) reduction of anthropogenic emissions of non-CO₂ GHGs (N₂O and CH₄) and (2) reduction or conversion of CO₂.Combustion is one of the main options for controlling methane emissions. The use of catalytic combustion may yield economic benefits, due to the usually low concentration of methane in its emissions, and avoids the formation of by-products in traces like formaldehyde, which may be more harmful than methane itself. The types of catalysts, mechanism of action, and reactor options (regenerative catalytic combustion, reverse flow catalytic combustion, and catalytic combustion using a rotating concentrator) are discussed.The catalytic control of N₂O emissions shows different specificities, because different types of emission sources are present. The catalytic abatement or reuse of N₂O from industrial emissions (particularly adipic and nitric acid production), the treatment of emissions from power plants or waste combustion, the alternatives of catalytic decomposition or reduction, and the role of the other gas components (O₂, NO _x , SO _x ) are analyzed.The problem of the catalytic conversion of fluorocarbons is also briefly discussed.The case of carbon dioxide is different because, in this case, the issue is the development of cost- and energy-effective catalytic routes for its conversion to usable products. There are many catalytic routes for using CO₂ as a building block in organic syntheses to obtain valuable chemicals and materials. Attention has focused recently on the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to fuels. In this case as well, different options exist, such as hydrogenation to form oxygenates (methanol, for example) and/or hydrocarbons, dry reforming with methane, reverse water gas shift, or, in a longer-term perspective, different methods using solar energy directly or indirectly (via bioconversion). Limitations and possible advantages of these different options are analyzed.

A future of renewable energy as a primary source for the world’s energy is one that society can no longer continue to ignore. As fossil fuel supplies diminish and the cost of atomic energy continues to rise, while there is no solution to the deposition of nuclear waste, renewable energy can step in to provide feasible alternatives to energy demands. Renewables do pose some challenges, namely, in addressing the fluctuating power supply that is inherent in their nature. Robust, integrated solutions using available, mature technologies have proven to be the solution to the challenges that wind and solar energy pose. Denmark has in the past, and continues to be a leader in integrated renewable energy solutions. In 2010, Denmark with its 5.5 million inhabitants was still on the world top-10 list measured by accumulated wind power capacity. In particular, the use of combined heat and power systems and the implementation of district heating have proven successful for Denmark, and can be transferred elsewhere. This chapter seeks to explore questions surrounding the implementation of sustainable integrated solutions very concretely in relation to energy in general and renewable energy in particular.

In the high-mobility countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), many governments are seeking to reduce personal mobility, particularly car travel, for a variety of reasons. Reductions can be justified in general by concerns about global climate change, oil depletion and supply security, and traffic casualties. In urban areas, additional concerns are air pollution, traffic congestion, take-up of land by transport infrastructure, and quality of urban life. Similarly, a variety of technological approaches are possible for addressing these problems in the context of global warming mitigation. This chapter examines policies for mobility reduction, as these can have a significant impact on climate change mitigation. It mainly restricts itself to the high-mobility countries of the OECD, and uses four such countries (Australia, Japan, the UK, and the USA) as case studies.The approaches considered here include:Using modern information technology (IT) advances to promote travel substitutionCar pooling, especially in urban areasLand use planning, particularly increased urban densitiesEncouraging the use of more environmentally friendly travel modesRaising the overall level (and perhaps also changing the structure) of motoring costsReducing the convenience of car travelIt is found that use of IT, car pooling, and land use planning, whether voluntary or legislated, cannot be expected to produce much reduction in either car passenger-km or in vehicle-km. Nor will reliance on voluntary approaches for car travel reduction by encouraging more use of environmentally friendly travel modes. Only the last two approaches can produce large and sustained reductions in travel greenhouse gas emissions, but heavy reliance on market forces such as very large increases in motoring costs is inequitable. The only equitable approach is to reduce the convenience of car travel, for example, by large travel speed reductions and by a reversal of the usual present ranking of travel modes: car, public transport, and active modes.

A Global Climate Change Education (GCCE) Program has been launched in Alabama to improve high school and public education in climate change science. The overarching goal is to generate a better informed public that understand the consequences of climate change and can contribute to sound decision making on related issues. With funding provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), new educational modules are incorporated into the existing course of study for 9–12 grade biology, chemistry, and physics classes. Teachers are trained in the use of these modules for their classroom through partnership with Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) and the Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative (AMSTI). Certified AMSTI teachers attend summer professional development workshops taught by ASIM specialists to learn to use GCCE modules. During the school year, the ASIM specialists in turn deliver the needed equipment to conduct GCCE classroom exercises and serve as an in-classroom resource for ASIM teachers and their students. Scientists are partnered with ASIM specialists and leading teachers to implement and test efficacy of instructional materials, models, and NASA climate change data used in classroom. The assessment by professional evaluators after the development of the modules and the training of teachers indicates that the modules are complete, clear, and user-friendly. The overall teacher satisfaction from the teacher training was 4.88/5.00. After completing the module teacher training, the teachers reported a strong agreement that the content developed in the GCCE modules should be included in the Alabama secondary curriculum. Eventually, the GCCE program has the potential to reach over 200,000 students when the modules are fully implemented in every school in the state of Alabama. The project can give these students access to expertise and equipment, thereby strengthening the connections between the universities, state education administrators, and the community.

This chapter will describe some simple models that have been used to explain the basic principles of the Earth’s climate to primary school students (aged 4–11), secondary school students (aged 11–16), post-16 students (16–19), and the general public (all ages) including those with disabilities. It will then describe a range of hands-on practical activities that demonstrate aspects of the climate system at the appropriate level. Assessment and impact of these activities on the learner’s level of cognition are then presented showing that the hands-on approach is a most effective way of communicating such concepts irrespective of the age of the learner. Furthermore, the varied impacts of a “lecture demonstration,” that is, a talk where points are illustrated by exemplar experiments that visually portray the science concept, are presented.The many misconceptions that surround the understanding of the Earth’s climate system are discussed and how teachers and other science communicators can deal with such issues in a classroom setting. The sourcing and use of the myriad datasets linked with the Earth’s climate that are freely available for schools’ projects are discussed with illustrations drawn from projects undertaken already.Often the impact of such engagement activities on the provider themselves is ignored; here the tangible benefits to all providers involved are discussed with some case studies as illustrations.Finally, the future prospect for the Earth’s climate is nearly always portrayed as negative. In this chapter, the idea of stabilization wedges is discussed and ways that the worse case scenarios for climate change can be averted. Using a variety of metrics, it is possible for a wide range of learners to appreciate the impact of any mitigation strategy, that is, literally “speaking in a language they can understand.”

The University of Mississippi offered a seminar course entitled Climate Change – Causes, Impacts and Solutions twice in the 4 last years. The immediate goal of this course is to raise the public awareness of the climate change issue. The second objective is to consolidate a knowledge base for the various outreach, education, and research activities on mitigating the climate change. Junior, senior, and graduate students of science and engineering majors were encouraged to take this course. About 25 speakers from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana gave lectures that covered their expertise in a wide spectrum of areas that include causes, impacts, and solutions of climate change. The slides used in these lectures are posted on the course web site for public dissemination: http://home.olemiss.edu/~cmchengs/Global%20Warming/. Students chose a specific research topic for approval in the early stage of the class. They submitted their research papers and made presentations at the end of the semester. Their overall performance is based on their classroom enthusiasm, final report, and presentation. When the course was offered for the first time, they also made recommendations to the Chancellor’s Ole Miss Green Initiative of the University of Mississippi on the reduction of carbon emissions in the community. This chapter discusses the motivation, content, and outcomes of this course in detail.