Carbon Capture from Power Plant and Atmosphere

英国和整个世界的能源供应将在未来20年内经历重大变化，因为各国寻求安全的能源供应，同时降低成本和可持续的环境影响。目前世界上大部分能源来自化石燃料的燃烧。英国也不例外。在英国，化石燃料（石油）在交通运输中占主导地位，而且这种情况在不久的将来不太可能改变。发电和供热主要是天然气（41%）和煤炭（34%），其中20%来自核能，只有3%来自可再生能源，2%来自进口电力。从现在开始，这些天然气和煤炭将主要进口，向英国以外的供应商支付成本。这也意味着供应安全得不到保障。能否改进这些能源的使用？一个关键的环境问题是化石燃料燃烧向大气中释放CO2。毫无疑问，这与全球变暖和气候变化有关。大气中的二氧化碳也溶解在海水中，迫使酸度比过去2000万年来的任何时候都要高。即使是那些仍然不相信气候变化的人也无法逃避海洋酸化的必然性，其后果至今无法预测。仅仅因为这个原因，大气中的二氧化碳就必须减少。为了能够继续使用化石燃料，迫切需要使其燃烧脱碳。2006年《斯特恩气候变化经济学评论》明确重申，在2017年之前的10年内必须取得重大进展。该研究建议从两个方面解决化石燃料问题：第一，建立一个英国大学捕集发电厂二氧化碳的专业中心。目前的工业系统依赖于溶剂的化学吸收，但需要非常高的能量输入，这降低了环境收益。该中心将侧重于通过纳米多孔材料的吸附分离二氧化碳的新技术，通过半渗透膜从发电厂烟道气中过滤二氧化碳，以及通过膜和吸附分离过程从空气中生产氧气，以实现氧燃料燃烧和有效的二氧化碳分离。需要消除大气中现有的二氧化碳排放。减少发电厂排放的建议并没有减少现有的二氧化碳，而只是使增加速度变慢。为了控制地球大气层并产生可持续的气候，需要提取已经排放的二氧化碳。这通常是通过植被以低成本实现的。我们将建立一个全新的大学专业中心，重点是利用农业、林业和废物中的生物质。这可以首先使生物燃料取代化石资源，并且残渣可以热解形成木炭。这种木炭在传统文化中被用来提高土壤肥力，并将碳锁定数千年。在欧盟、美国和发展中国家，土地利用的改善可以通过工程、土壤科学和对耕种者的社会效益的整合来实现这一目标。爱丁堡（与英国地质调查局和赫瑞瓦特合作）已经拥有英国最大的研究捕获的二氧化碳地质掩埋的学术中心。爱丁堡现有多技能网络，将土地使用、农业、社会、法律的和经济分析、化学工程和石油地球科学联系起来。碳捕集中心的建立将是一个理想的补充活动，从大气捕集到发电厂捕集，再到种植和地质掩埋，其专业知识范围将是独一无二的。该中心的产出可以帮助英国以环境清洁的方法燃烧煤炭和天然气，通过多样化化石燃料来源来增强能源安全，并开始以能源和财政有效的可持续方式直接清除大气中的二氧化碳。

Energy supply for the UK, and for the World as a whole, will experience major changes during the next 20 years, as states seek secure energy supplies, combined with low costs, and sustainable environmental impacts. Most of world energy currently derives from combustion of fossil fuel. The UK is no exception.In the UK, fossil fuel (oil) dominates transport use, and this is unlikely to change in the near future. Electricity and heat generation is dominated by gas (41%) and coal (34%), with 20% from nuclear, only 3% from renewables, and 2% imported electricity. This gas and coal will from now onwards largely be imported, paying costs to suppliers outside the UK. This also means security of supply is not guaranteed. Can improvements be made to the use of these energy sources?A key environmental problem is that fossil fuel combustion releases CO2 to the atmosphere. This is now, beyond reasonable doubt, linked to global warming and climate change. Atmospheric CO2 also dissolves in ocean water, forcing an increased acidity greater than any time in the past 20 Million years. Even those who still do not believe in climate change cannot escape the inevitability of ocean acidification / with as yet un-predicted consequences. For this reason alone, atmospheric CO2 must be reduced.To enable continued use of fossil fuels it is an urgent requirement to de-carbonise their combustion. The Stern Review of Climate Change Economics in 2006 clearly re-stated that significant progress must be made during the ten years until 2017.This research proposal addresses the fossil fuel issues in two ways: Firstly, to create a UK Centre of university expertise in the capture of CO2 from power plants. Current industrial systems rely on chemical absorption by solvents, but require a very high energy input, which reduces the environmental gain. The Centre will focus on new technologies of CO2 separation by adsorption onto nanoporous materials, by filtration of CO2 from power plant flue gases by semi-permeable membranes, and by membrane and adsorption separation processes for the production of oxygen from air, to enable oxy-fuel combustion and efficient CO2 separation.Secondly, we acknowledge that there is, and will be, a need to remove existing CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. The reductions proposed from power plant emissions do not reduce existing CO2, but rather just make the increase slower. To control the earth atmosphere and produce a sustainable climate requires extraction of CO2 already emitted. This is routinely achieved, at low cost, by vegetation. We will create an entirely new centre of university expertise which will focus on using bio-mass from agriculture, forestry and waste. This can firstly make bio-fuel to replace fossil sources, and the residues can be pyrolised to form charcoal. Such charcoal has been used in traditional cultures to enhance soil fertility, and locks up carbon for thousands of years. Improvements in land use in the EU, the USA, and developing world can achieve this, by an integration of engineering, soil science, and social benefit to cultivators.Edinburgh (with the British Geological Survey and Heriot-Watt) already hosts the UK's largest academic centre investigating geological burial of captured CO2. There are existing multi-skilled networks at Edinburgh linking land use, agriculture, social, legal and economic analysis, chemical engineering and petroleum geoscience. Creation of the Carbon Capture Centre will be an ideal complementary activity, and the range of expertise, from atmospheric capture, to power-plant capture to cultivation and geological burial will be unique.Outputs from the Centre can help the UK to combust coal and gas with environmentally clean methods, to enhance energy security by diversifying away from fossil fuel sources, and to commence the direct clean-up of CO2 from the atmosphere in an energy and financially efficient, sustainable way.