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Chemistry Assignment- Carbon Capture and Storage

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Citizens Against CO2 Sequestration: WARNING - CO2 Sequestration Danger - What goes into the ground is NOT bubbles or carbonation! It is supercritical CO2 and carries a lot of risks - The full article is here - some excerpts from the article are below Health hazards from CO2 "At room temperature and ambient pressure, CO2 is a colourless, odourless gas that supports neither combustion nor life. It is not just an asphyxiant but also has toxicological effects and has been recognised as an occupational health hazard for more than a hundred years. Dense phase and supercritical CO2 give rise to additional hazards particularly when the pressure suddenly falls or is lost completely. " Further information on the cryogenic, traumatic and toxicological effects General hazards of carbon dioxide At room temperature and ambient pressure CO2 is a colourless, odourless gas that will not support combustion or human life.

It is also possible for dangerous levels of CO2 to form out-of-doors in trenches, depressions or valleys. There is no significant inherent human response to CO2 that could be useful as a detection mechanism. CO2 Pipe Hazard. Citizens Against CO2 Sequestration: WARNING - CO2 Sequestration Danger - What goes into the ground is NOT bubbles or carbonation! Www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/ccspamphlet.pdf. Frequently asked questions — ZeroCO2 - About Carbon Capture and Storage.

What is CCS? How is CO2 captured? How is CO2 transported? How is CO2 stored? I've heard CO2 can be stored in water too. How does that work? Why do we need CCS? Is CCS safe? How do we know that it won't leak? But what if there is a leak? Can CO2 storage sites explode? But what about blow-outs? Can CCS remove all CO2? What does it cost? Will energy prices rise? Is there enough room to store it all?

Isn't it better to just stop using fossil fuels? Isn't CCS just leaving our problems for future generations to look after? What is CCS? CCS is short for carbon capture and storage. How is CO2 captured? There are several different technologies available for capturing CO2 from industrial flues. How is CO2 transported? The preferred way of transporting CO2 is by pipeline. How is CO2 stored? There are several types of storage sites available that are well suited for CO2 storage.

I've heard CO2 can be stored in water too. Yes it is possible, but we don't think it's a good idea. Why do we need CCS? Is CCS safe? No. No. Carbon cycle. This diagram of the fast carbon cycle shows the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, and oceans in billions of tons of carbon per year. Yellow numbers are natural fluxes, red are human contributions in billions of tons of carbon per year. White numbers indicate stored carbon. The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.

Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle, the carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to making the Earth capable of sustaining life; it describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere. The global carbon budget is the balance of the exchanges (incomes and losses) of carbon between the carbon reservoirs or between one specific loop (e.g., atmosphere ↔ biosphere) of the carbon cycle. Relevance for the global climate[edit] Main components[edit] Atmosphere[edit] Terrestrial biosphere[edit] Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is essential to life on Earth and is an integral part of the carbon cycle which interacts with the Earth's oceans, soil, rocks and biosphere.

Biologically, plants and other photoautotrophs extract the carbon from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis and use it as an energy source and for the construction of their body parts. Therefore, Earth wouldn't have a present-day biosphere without atmospheric CO2. Carbon dioxide is well mixed in the Earth's atmosphere and reconstructions show that concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere varied from as high as 7,000 parts per million during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago in ancient-Earth biospheres to as low as 180 parts per million during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years.

The recent phenomenon of global warming has been attributed primarily to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations in Earth's atmosphere. Current concentration[edit] Past concentration[edit] CO2CRC - Leaders in research into Carbon Capture and Storage. Carbon capture and storage could also impact air pollution. "Carbon capture and storage can bridge the gap for the next few decades, cutting emissions until we can shift to a low carbon economy", Professor Jacqueline McGlade EEA Executive Director said. "Our report shows that while CCS may have an overall positive effect on air pollution, emissions of some pollutants may increase. Understanding these types of trade-offs are extremely important if we are to deploy this technology across Europe and the world.

" CCS technologies require approximately 15 – 25 % more energy depending on the particular type of technology used, so plants with CCS need more fuel than conventional plants. This in turn can lead to increased 'direct emissions' occurring from facilities where CCS is installed, and increased 'indirect emissions' caused by the extraction and transport of the additional fuel. The EEA report identifies some of the potential benefits and trade-offs for the main air pollutants. Carbon capture and storage – a vital part of our climate change response. One of the biggest challenges in our fight against climate change is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the energy sector. Approximately 87% of current global primary energy supplies (and 67% of electricity generation) come from the fossil fuels coal, oil and gas.

Worse still, energy-related GHG emissions are projected to rise by over 50% by 2030, mainly due to rapid developments in China and India. Much research in recent years has shown that no single technology or strategy will be sufficient to curb rising emissions. Instead, we will need to use every tool we can to develop a portfolio of solutions. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), or geosequestration, is one such tool. It will be a key factor in meeting the challenge of climate change.

Indeed, numerous studies by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and many governments around the world see CCS as an essential technology for reducing emissions. How does CCS work? Click to enlarge. CCS in Australia. Transporting Carbon Dioxide" After carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured, the next step is transporting it to a storage site. The current method of transporting CO2 is through a pipeline.

Pipelines have been in use for decades, and large volumes of gases, oil and water flow through pipelines every day. Carbon dioxide pipelines are an existing part of the U.S. infrastructure -- in fact, there are more than 1,500 miles (2,414 km) of CO2 pipelines in the U.S. today, mostly for enhancing oil production [source: IPCC]. You can put a pipeline just about anywhere -- underground or underwater -- with depths ranging from a few feet to a mile. A CO2 pipeline usually begins at the source of capture and travels directly to the storage site -- although, in some cases, it might travel as far as it can in the pipe, then transition to a tanker or ship to finish off its journey. It all depends on where the source, pipeline and storage site are located. Pipelines can transport CO2 in three states: gaseous, liquid and solid.