Climate change is a very complex and challenging issue. Meeting this challenge is one of the most pressing needs of our time. Stopping the growth in greenhouse gas emissions and eventually reversing the trend will require perhaps the greatest peacetime cooperative undertaking by world governments ever undertaken. The challenges that need to be overcome will be both numerous and daunting.
More than half of US emissions9 come from fossil fuel burning power plants and industrial facilities; nearly half of EU emissions also come from those sources. Elimination of these emissions alone could achieve the 50% goal in the U.S. Increased use of renewables (solar, wind, etc.), nuclear plants, conservation and energy efficiency can provide some progress, but it is generally agreed that these solutions cannot fully replace fossil fuels within the required timeframe6. Using a cap-and-trade regulatory system to reduce fossil fuels burning sources by 50% will raise the cost of energy significantly with significant impacts on the world economy. Consequently, in order to meet the 50% reduction goal, fossil fuel burning power plants and industrial facilities need to be retrofitted with CO2 reduction technology. The International Energy Agency recently concluded that to meet this ambitious goal, each year between 2010 and 2050, on average, 35 coal and 20 gas-fired power plants would need to be retrofitted7.
As the CCS concept has been further studied, however, the multiple challenges have emerged3, 7, 8, 10. While CCS appears feasible, it faces many technical, political, cost and business issues. With CCS’s challenges, the task of finding a reliable, affordable, carbon-positive and energy efficient CO2 emission reduction technology has become more urgent than ever
IES’ CO2 Reduction Technology offers certain major advantages over CCS and could play a major role in the fight against climate change. |
