Clean Energy, Climate and Carbon (Paperback)

CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements

1 The context
Climate change science: the controversies
Global and national efforts to take action on climate change
About this book

2 CO₂ and climate change
Greenhouse gases
The nature of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide and earth’s history
Weather versus climate
Causes of pre-human climate change
Distinguishing natural climate change from anthropogenic climate change
Sea level change as evidence for global warming
Global warming and extreme weather events
Act now or later?
Conclusions

3 Where and why are we producing so much CO₂ ?
The production and use of energy and its impacts on CO₂ emissions: an overview
The use of fossil fuels
Two key sectors: electricity production and transport
Conclusions

4 Technology options for decreasing CO₂ emissions
Solar energy
Wind power
Hydroelectric power
Ocean energy
Biomass
Geothermal energy
Nuclear power
Sequestering CO₂ through carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Conclusion

5 The mitigation mix
Population growth and the energy mix
Biofuels in the mix
Land requirements of different technologies
Energy and water
Renewable energy in the energy mix
Non renewable energy in the energy mix
The energy mix in the medium to long term
Conclusions

6 Where and how can we capture CO₂ ?
Directly removing CO₂ from the atmosphere
Capturing CO₂ emitted from various sources
CCS and gas production
CCS and coal and gas-fired power generation
Post combustion capture
CCS and gasification
CCS and industrial processes emitting CO₂
Technologies for separating CO₂ from emissions
Conclusions

7 How can we transport CO₂ ?
Key issues in transportation of CO₂ via pipelines
CO2 transportation by road, rail and sea
Reducing transportation costs: CO₂ hubs
Conclusion

8 Storing CO₂
Why geological storage over other forms of storage?
Identifying suitable geological CO₂ storage sites: sedimentary basins
Features of a sedimentary basin that may make it suitable for storage
Storage of CO₂ in depleted oil and gas fields
Storage in deep saline aquifers
Storage in coalsStorage in basalts
Storage in serpentinites
Assessing storage capacity
National assessments of storage potential
Conclusions

9 How do we know CCS will be effective?
The nature of risk assessment
Geological risk
Existing natural gas storage facilities
Natural accumulations of CO₂
Knowledge derived from large scale commercial CO₂ storage projects
Location-specific risk assessment: characterising the site
The risks of earthquakes
The risk to groundwater
Monitoring
The regulatory regime
A ‘social licence’ for CCS?

10 The cost of clean energy
The interplay of costs
The costs of capturing CO₂ emissions from non-power source
Transport and associated costsStorage costs
Indicative total costs for CCS
Cost estimates derived from operational CCS activities
Costing uncertainty
Comparison costing
Conclusions

11 The technology and the politics of clean energy
Future strategies in a carbon constrained world
Achieving emissions reductions targets CCS in the clean energy mix
The policy settings
The impact of pricing carbon on clean energy technology uptake
Conclusions

Acronyms

Additional general reading

References to data sources

Index