气候变化与新能源(Climate change and New Energies)

Climate change and New Energies

Carlo Rubbia

Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies

Potsdam, Germany

CERN,

Geneva, Switzerland

Beijing_Nov20101

Innovation: the key to a successful development

●In order to reconcile sustainable development and economic growth with the threat of environmental decay coherent strategic choices have to be made, relaying on truly innovative scientific and technological developments.

●The huge progress in the fields of Solar, Wind, Biomass and Geothermal energies does not need to be here further discussed.

●In this short presentation some other tentative, novel, new and perhaps less known developments will be briefly described: 1.Energy production from fossils without CO2 emissions, as an

alternative to Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS). 2.Recovering the vast amounts of already accumulated CO2 to

generate a liquid substitute to Oil. The “Methanol economy”.

3.Unconventional, huge resources of Natural Gas from

Clathrates.

4.An almost inexhaustible novel Nuclear Energy from Thorium.

Energy production from fossils without CO2 emissions

The consequences of Climate Changes are irreversible ●Anthropogenic CO2 and other emissions and their predictable effects on the climate changes are a major concern: it is therefore necessary to develop new solutions for curbing the growing combustion of fossils,and the related CO2 emissions.

●The idea that anthropogenic CO2 releases will affect the climate of the earth for hundreds of thousands of years has not reached general awareness of the public and of the scientific community.

Residual amounts of fossil C :

17-33% after 1’000 years

10–15% after 10’000 years

7% after 100’000 years

Residual, for ever

Pre-industrial

CO2 sequestration: but ≈1000 years ?

An alternative: burning Natural Gas without CO2 emissions?

●The ordinary combustion of Natural Gas (NG) implies the production of vast amounts of CO2.

●A way of temporarily removing the CO2 from the atmosphere is to concentrate and sequester it either under the ocean or underground (CCS) for a long time (?). A very significant amount of additional energy is however wasted in the process.

●An alternative process is however possible in which NG conversion into H2 is made without CO2 emissions, namely:

CH4→ 2H2 + C.

●This is the pyrolysis or spontaneous thermal decomposition (TDM) at high temperatures of NG into H2 and black solid carbon. The energy is then generated by burning the H2.

●The black carbon can kept sequestered or eventually sold on the market as a material commodity, or reduce costs by marketing the carbon as a filler or construction material.