Coal to Natural Gas Fuel Switching and CO 2 Emissions Reduction A thesis presented by Jackson Salovaara To Applied Mathematics in partial fulfillment of the honors requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Harvard College Cambridge, Massachusetts April 1, 2011 . But some gas escapes into the atmosphere while wells are being built and during the fracking process itself. Coal gas contains a mixture of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, ethylene and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases … Natural gas and coal energy investments pay for themselves much more than renewable energy investments. Coal combustion produces more greenhouse gases than the combustion of any other fossil fuel. A report published today in Science, however, concludes that the United States’ leaky natural gas production system currently isn’t leaking enough methane to make it worse fuel for the climate than coal. Source: US Energy Information Administration. Partly that’s because air sampling will pick up both anthropogenic methane and methane from natural sources, such as wetlands. The flexibility that natural gas brings to an energy system can also make it a good fit for the rise of variable renewables such as wind and solar PV. Nuclear fuel is much cheaper per kWh. Heat is produced when C and H combine with oxygen (O) during combustion. In addition, the very fact that Harry Potter bureaucrats in DC would attack an energy market that pays for itself and supports so many people and families is anti-American and just one reason why Obama made America weak. Advertising Notice The extraction/production; refining/conditioning; transportation/storage; and combustion of each fossil fuel is different. “Methane is a potent greenhouse gas,” said energy researcher Adam Brandt of Stanford University. 6. million-ft. 3. Studies that have directly measured methane levels have gotten much different results. “Most devices do not leak,” Brandt noted. The recent boom in natural gas production in the United States, for instance, contributed to a 3.8 percent drop in carbon emissions in 2012. To calculate these estimates, someone has to go to a facility and take direct measurements from various equipment and devices. Although natural gas burning emits less fatal pollutants and GHGs than coal burning, it is far deadlier than nuclear power, causing about 40 times more deaths per unit electric energy produced (ref. Table 1: Pounds of CO2 emitted per million British thermal units (Btu) of energy for various fuels. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. But even that level of methane wasn’t enough to make natural gas a bigger greenhouse gas contributor than coal, the researchers found. Overall energy consumption in the United States reached a record high in 2018 at 101 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), of which more than 81 quadrillion Btu were from fossil fuels. And the facilities where the measurements are taken will serve as the basis for calculations of methane emissions for a type of source or a region. Running costs include the cost of any fuel, maintenance costs, repair costs, wages, handling any wastes etc. Analyses by the US Department of Energy indicate that every 10,000 U.S. homes powered with natural gas instead of coal avoid the annual emissions of 1,900 tons of NOx, 3,900 tons of SO2, and 5,200 tons of particulates. Today, as the NEI report shows, a new front is opening between nuclear and natural gas. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. Natural Gas Based Energy Production • Newer technology • Accounts for ~28% of electricity production in the U.S. – But this number is growing! United States: Coal vs. Natural Gas and Renewables. In transportation, burning natural gas does produce some nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are precursors to smog, but at much lower levels than gasoline and diesel used for motor vehicles. Cleaner burning than other fossil fuels, the combustion of natural gas produces negligible amounts of sulfur, mercury, and particulates. Also, such fuel switching is practically guaranteed to worsen the climate problem for several reasons. Energy needs rise more slowly than in the past but still are expected to expand by 30% between today and 2040. Coal-fired plants emit not only carbon dioxide. under grant agreement No 723030. Likewise, at different stages, every fossil fuel contributes to global warming to a different degree. utilities no longer build coal-fired power plants because newer, more efficient natural gas … Each subsection weighs natural gas vs. coal and then measures the performance of shale gas against the two traditional fuels. This piece was originally published by Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering . These official estimates, however, probably underestimate total methane leaked because the devices that are sampled to provide those estimates aren't necessarily representative of all of the devices used by the natural gas industry to produce and move its product. From the destruction of forests, devastation of water quality, and the irreversible changing of landscape, coal mining has a massive impact on the environment. Quantifying all those leaks, though, has proven tricky. or produces nearly half as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy compared with coal. But the climate benefits of such a switch are not as clear as the switch from coal to natural gas. Natural gas releases about half the carbon emissions that coal does when burnt. Section 3 concludes on the assessment and lists technical and regulatory proposals to fix some of the most imminent problems. Surveys have shown that proven reserves of dom estic natural gas are 12.7x10. This login is only for GASVESSEL partners to access the private area. Natural Gas vs Coal: Undoubtedly, high efficiency natural gas-fired power stations can produce up to 70% lower greenhouse gas emissions than existing brown coal-fired generators, and less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of the latest technology black coal-fired power stations. Natural gas emits 50 to 60 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2) when combusted in a new, efficient natural gas power plant compared with … The large natural gas leaks suggested in regional studies “are unlikely to be representative of the entire [natural gas] industry,” they write. Give a Gift. • Results in significant reduction of GHG emissions at the plant level! The lowest first cost is to install one burner, if boiler design, desired capacity and control strategy will allow. Natural gas, on the other hand, is dirty because it is natural gas. Why Do Older Individuals Have Greater Control of Their Feelings? California Do Not Sell My Info During the first six months of 2016, natural gas supplied 36% of total U.S. electricity generation compared with 31% for coal. Natural gas wells release 172.6. Sarah Zielinski is an award-winning science writer and editor. Shutterstock Despite gas prices expected to reach $4 by winter, it's clear that natural gas has been gaining market share in the U.S. electric power system over coal, the longtime mainstay. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Coal vs. natural gas: It's complicated. 3.2 Pr oven re serves of natural gas and coal. All this puts a lot of pressure on our planet’s ecosystem. Fuel costs can be given per kWh and tend to be highest for oil fired generation, with coal being second and gas being cheaper. The fact that natural gas causes far more global warming than coal over a 20-year time frame is a concern because of the severe damage global warming is already causing that will only be made worse over the next Those measurements are added up to get a total for the facility. Water and various other elements, such as sulfur and noncombustible elements in some fuels, reduce their heating values and increase their CO2-to-heat contents. Taking into account methane leaks from extraction all the way down the pipeline to the pump may actually make natural gas less climate friendly than diesel. The amount of CO2 produced when a fuel is burned is a function of the carbon content of the fuel. The gas is about 30 times better at holding in the atmosphere’s heat compared with carbon dioxide. Sep. 26, 2012 Updated: Sep. 27, 2012 10:43 a.m. Facebook Twitter Email. Reductions in these emissions translate into public health benefits, as these pollutants have been linked to problems such as asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, and heart disease for hundreds of thousands of people. a fossil fuel, though the global warming emissions from its combustion are much lower than those from coal Coal is dirty because it releases large quantities of CO2 and methane into the air during its lifecycle. Report by the US Environmental Protection Agency – EPA, Exploitation potential of GASVESSEL technology, Consortium meetings to mark the project progress, Successful second reporting period and Grant Agreement amendments, Gasvessel Consortium visit to see the pilot line, OMC Mediterannean Confernce & Exibition 2021, Naval Progetti will present GASVESSEL at EMC 2020 in Cyprus, 14th World Congress in Computational Mechanics and ECCOMAS Congress, CAASE, the Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering. When talking about climate change, not all fossil fuels are created equal. Natural gas is primarily methane (CH4), which has a higher energy content relative to other fuels, and thus, it has a relatively lower CO2-to-energy content. 2. Smithsonian Institution. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities. Coal is over. In addition, sampling is expensive and limited. The heat content, or the amount of energy produced when a fuel is burned, is mainly determined by the carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) content of the fuel. Coal and natural gas are often priced in dollars per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Engineering and Public Policy 5215 Wean Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 412-268-2670 Contact Us They generated just over half of … In August 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump implemented a range of measures to support the American coal industry. It also only takes place at locations where facilities let the EPA in—those facilities may be different from the average facility, leading to sampling bias. Terms of Use The current levels of atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are unprecedented in the last 800,000 years. If there were natural gas leaks of that magnitude across the natural gas industry, then methane levels in the atmosphere would be much higher that surveyed in the air sampling studies. coal life cycle coal life cycle emission methane from coal life cycle natural gas life cycle. 0 comments. Each fossil fuel has a different life cycle. It’s coal vs. natural gas in the fight for “Least Negative Impact” on the climate. There are some areas where methane is allowed to leak intentionally for purposes of safety, but there’s also a lot of leaky valves and cracked pipes out there that can let the gas out. 2). The role that natural gas can play in the future of global energy is inextricably linked to its ability to help address environmental problems. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Published by N. Sönnichsen, Apr 3, 2021 United States' electricity producers paid about 2.39 U.S. dollars per million British thermal unit for natural gas in 2020. The energy generation sector (electrical and heat) is the largest source of GHGs, accounting for more than 60% of all GHG emissions (electricity production – 28.4%; industry – 22%; commercial and residential – 11%) which primarily come from burning fossil fuels for energy (source: Report by the US Environmental Protection Agency – EPA). Each year, in the U.S. alone, coal mining releases an estimated 61 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTC02E) tons of methane into the air. This is especially true given limits to how quickly renewable energy options can be scaled up and that cost-effective zero-carbon options can be harder to find in some parts of the energy system. • Can be transported in pipeline lower energy requirement than coal A global economy growing at an average rate of 3.4% per year, a population that expands from 7.4 billion today to more than 9 billion in 2040, and a process of urbanisation that adds a city the size of Shanghai to the world’s urban population every four months are key forces that underpin International Energy Agency projections. In 2016, the delivered cost of coal to Minnesota power plants was $2.06 per mmBtu, and natural gas cost $3.10 per mmbtu, according to the Energy Information Administration. However, natural gas has never been a cheaper fuel than coal; other variables such as environmental/emissions clean-up equipment, material handling and operational issues must be considered. She is a contributing writer in science for Smithsonian.com and blogs at Wild Things, which appears on Science News. Especially with respect to open-pit coal mining, the environmental impact of coal cannot be overstated. Companies may find it worth their while to do so, and not simply for the climate benefits. Greenhouse gases… Oil. Jeannie Kever. Brandt and his team then took a look at all the excess methane being released into the atmosphere. 18th Annual Photo Contest Winners and Finalists Announced! 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