The Huanen Beijing co-generation power plant is not the shining advertisement for clean coal that advocates claim, according to Thomas R Blakeslee in Renewable Energy World last week. Australian carbon capture and storage technology has been installed at the plant and 3,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide are captured annually and sold to soft drink manufacturers. Blakeslee said this is less than one thousandth of the CO2 produced by the plant and that the equipment required to compress and process the millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide the plant produces each year would be larger than the plant itself and would consume a significant portion of the power it produces. Blakeslee said, “the political stranglehold of the coal lobby is the biggest threat to our climate today.”
Category: Climate chaos
The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
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Beijing clean coal fails to impress
The Huaneng Beijing Co-Generation plant is a very impressive and clean looking 845-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant. It features sulfur removal, water recycling and dust control. Efficiency is improved by selling excess heat for district heating. I was particularly interested to see the separate building, where an Australian carbon capture system collects and compresses 3300 tons/year of CO2 for sale to soft drink manufacturers.
At the end of the tour there was a presentation, which gave the impression that the CO2 capture solved the global warming problems of coal. I knew that a coal plant of this size emits about 6 million tons of CO2 per year, so capturing only 3300 tons means that 99.9 oper cent of the CO2 must be released to the atmosphere! When I asked the guide about this he was very embarrassed and had to admit that this was just a test and would have to be expanded. Looking at the large CO2 capture building, I would estimate that to capture all six million tons would take a building larger than the whole complex. The CO2 is now delivered in heavy steel cylinders. Hauling away and selling six million tons this way will obviously be impractical.
In the conference hall there was also a stack of free copies of the Carbon Capture Journal available. A strange thing to distribute at a renewable energy conference! The coal business is big money in China as it is here. In the U.S. we have the same problem. A coal industry front group called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices sponsors similar propaganda in the U.S. They ran US $35 million worth of TV ads during the Presidential debates, which implanted “clean coal” into our unconscious without ever mentioning that it doesn’t really exist anywhere in the world
Unfortunately, even Obama seems determined to spend billions more on the dream of “clean coal.” The political stranglehold of the coal lobby worldwide is the biggest threat to our climate today. Supporters of sequestration conveniently ignore the staggering volume of the CO2 that must be disposed of: 10 billion tons/yr worldwide! The largest sequestration project in the world so far is an Algerian plant that stores 1.2 million tons per year in four gas wells. It will be full when 17 million tons have been stored. Many U.S. coal plants emit more than 20 million tons every year!
Somehow we must find the political will to free ourselves from these powerful forces that fight to maintain the status quo. Coal is an environmental nightmare that only appears cheap because we have ignored its hidden costs. Geothermal power is cleaner and cheaper yet we are fooled into wasting precious time and money trying to keep coal alive.
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Stargazers lobby for lights off at night
From the Scotsman
A FIFTH of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way with the naked eye due to artificial lights blocking out the view of the stars.This year, which is International Year of Astronomy, a new project is taking place to try to improve the visibility of the stars.
Campaigners at the Dark Skies Awareness project will be lobbying local authorities and members of the public to turn off lights in built-up areas at night.
Malcolm Smith, an astronomer at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, wrote about the importance of the project in the journal Nature.
He said: “Over the past six decades, professional and amateur astronomers have been pioneering efforts to curb light pollution to protect the viability of their observatories.
“During the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, particularly through the Dark Skies Awareness project, astronomers can find allies in a common cause to convince authorities and the public that a dark sky is a valuable resource for everyone.” Mr Tololo explains that turning lights off at night has benefits beyond improving the view of the stars.
“Reducing the number of lights on at night could help conserve energy, protect wildlife and benefit human health,” he said.
“The most persuasive arguments for lighting control are economic ones. Estimates by the International Dark-Sky Association, based on work from satellite images, show that cities needlessly shine billions of pounds worth of light directly into the sky each year.
“As education on these issues improves, some cities are now realising the benefits of controlling such energy waste through better-quality lighting, thereby reducing dangerous glare and confusing lighting clutter.”
He said that although humans are generally comfortable in artificially-lit environments, it can cause confusion for other species.
Migrating birds suffer in particular, he said. “In more and more cities in Canada and the United States, switching off at least some of the light in nearly empty skyscrapers reduces the unnecessary annual slaughter of millions of migrating birds.”
And he argues that losing the ability to see the Milky Way with the naked eye also has a subtle cultural impact on our society.
“Without a direct view of the stars, mankind is cut off from most of the universe, deprived of any direct sense of its huge scale and our tiny place within it.”
He highlights the fact that research shows light at night triggers signals that cause a reduction in the normal production of melatonin, which suppresses cell division in cancerous cells.
Mr Smith thinks gradually an understanding of the potential to make use of the view of the night sky is being realised.
He argues it could have benefits through ecotourism associated with protected, natural, starlit skies.
The International Astronomical Union has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to pursue the goal of identifying and protecting astronomical sites of historic significance.
The US National Park Service has launched a night-time-visits service in a joint effort between astronomers and park staff. But Mr Smith thinks far more can be done to cut down on the use of lights at night.
There is no evidence, he argues, that increasing the use of lights at night reduces crime levels.
And he thinks the use of “blinding headlights” could be reduced.
“In many places in the world, one can drive around moderately lit, smaller towns with side lights. In the countryside, moderate headlights can be supported with catseye road reflectors,” he says.
The International Year of Astronomy commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the night sky
and aims to give people all over the world the chance to experience the wonders of the night-time sky.
This year is also the anniversary of many other important dates in the history of astronomy, including the publishing of Kepler’s Astronomia Nova, Huygens’ Systema Saturnium and the first Moon landing. Some 140 countries are participating and the UK will host a series of events, such as spring and autumn moon watches, a competition for 1,000 schools to win a telescope, and a national programme of dark sky activities that are aimed at getting as many members of the public as possible looking up at the night sky.
Scotland gazes up through some of the least polluted skies in the world, and there is a campaign to create internationally recognised “dark sky parks” where visitors could go to enjoy the full spectacle of the night sky.
There are currently two internationally recognised dark sky parks in the United States and one in Canada, but as yet no such area in Europe.
Dark Sky Scotland, in conjunction with the John Muir Trust and Forestry Commission Scotland, organises activities and events throughout the year.
UK in EU court over pollution
The European Union is planning to take Britain to court for consistently breaching air pollution laws, which could result in unlimited daily fines.
Air pollution near many roads averages well over twice the UN’s World Health Organisation maximum recommended level, which has led to constant infringements of EU air quality laws.
In particular, diesel engines emit large quantities of minute, sooty particles known as PM10s which are linked to asthma and heart disease. The government’s own figures estimate they result in 12,000 to 24,000 premature deaths a year in the UK.
The EU environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said that PM10 pollution was particularly bad in London. “There are PM10 exceedances in London along more than 200km of roads,” he wrote to Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman,
In his letter Dimas revealed that legal proceedings were being prepared. “The commission services are now preparing the launch of infringement proceedings against the UK. In view of the serious consequences of high concentrations of PM10, the commission expects the UK to ensure a speedy reduction.”
Britain had been given six years by Europe to reduce its PM10 levels after air legislation was introduced in 1999. This passed into British law in 2005 but documents obtained by the Campaign for Clean Air in London (CCAL) show that limits have been widely breached since then.
The documents show that more than 20 UK cities and conurbations broke the pollution law in 2006, and Belfast, Coventry, London, Birmingham, Tyneside and Bristol also broke it in 2005. These infringements are expected to be the basis of the EU’s legal case against Britain.
The case could take two years to come to court, and could prove embarrassing in the run up to the Olympic games.
The government is also expected to approve plans shortly for a third runway at Heathrow in possible further defiance of air quality laws, and is certain to miss other EU deadlines. A directive, which came into force last June, demands that levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution be reduced on some busy streets by more than a third by the end of this year.
Unlike PM10 pollution, which mostly affects people living close to traffic, NO2 is much more widespread. High levels can cause lung damage and increased respiratory infections. Nearly half of nitrogen dioxide emissions come from cars and 25% from power stations.
The only feasible way that Britain can meet its new NO2 target is by tackling traffic congestion with schemes such as low emission zones, which bar the most polluting vehicles from entering areas, or congestion charging as in London.
Aviation is also a significant contributor of NO2, making the Heathrow decision highly relevant.
The government plans to hold a three month consultation and then apply for a time extension to come up with ways to meet its NO2 target. Nine other EU countries are also applying for extensions.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are unlikely to meet the 2010 deadline in respect of nitrogen dioxide. The problem is mainly about existing pollution from traffic.”
Simon Birkett of CCAL said: “Legal action to enforce health-based air quality laws is long overdue. We urge the government to say urgently how it will comply fully with these laws. It can try to delay introducing measures to reduce air pollution but eventually it will have to meet these directives.”