Downloaded on 05 November 2012 Published on 22 December 2009 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.

1039/9781847559715-FP005

Preface
It is widely recognised that global warming is occurring due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Methods of capturing and then storing CO2 from major sources, such as fossil fuel burning power plants, are being developed in order to reduce the levels emitted to the atmosphere by human activities. This book reports on progress in this eld and provides a context within the range of natural absorption processes in the oceans and forests and in soil, and of methane emissions from melting permafrost and hydrates. Comparisons of fossil fuels with alternative energy sources such as solar and nuclear are made and policy issues are reviewed. The opening chapter, by Klaus Lackner of Columbia University, USA, compares the impacts of fossil fuels with alternative energy sources. The evergrowing need for energy to drive economic growth in both developed and developing countries, coupled to an overwhelming dependence on fossil fuels, has led to rising atmospheric levels of CO2 and to climate change. The various possible strategies to combat this are explored within a wide-ranging discussion of energy which provides a basis for the discussion of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Policy developments related to those CCS technologies considered closest to deployment then are reviewed in Chapter 2 by Jon Gibbins and Hannah Chalmers of Imperial College, London. The need for incentives as well as mandatory requirements for commercial-scale demonstration and deployment of CCS technologies is discussed. The importance of coal for large-scale power generation has focused attention on CCS as a means of continuing the exploitation of reserves. Australia is a country rich in coal reserves, with a well-developed CCS programme which is reviewed by Allen Lowe, Burt Beasley and Thomas Burly for the Australian Coal Association in Chapter 3. Then in Chapter 4 Dermot Roddy and Gerardo Gonzalez of Newcastle University, UK, describe the potential of underground coal gasication with CCS as a source of clean energy. Recognising the particular problems associated with energy intensive industries, Chapter 5, written by David Pocklington and Richard Leese of the Mineral Products Association,
Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, 29 Carbon Capture: Sequestration and Storage Edited by R.E. Hester and R.M. Harrison r Royal Society of Chemistry 2010 Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, www.rsc.org

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Preface

Downloaded on 05 November 2012 Published on 22 December 2009 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781847559715-FP005

addresses the potential for carbon capture and storage in cement manufacture. Geological storage of CO2, the nal stage in most CCS schemes, is reviewed in Chapter 6 by Nicholas Riley of the British Geological Survey. The next three chapters are concerned with natural processes and examine the potential for enhancement of carbon sequestration as well as the problems associated with rising CO2 levels. Chapter 7, by Stephen Chapman of the Macaulay Institute in Scotland, explores carbon sequestration in soils and plants; Chapter 8, by Maria Nijnik, also of the Macaulay Institute, reviews CCS in forests; and Chapter 9, by Carol Turley of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), UK, examines uptake, transport and storage by oceans and the consequences of change. In the nal Chapter 10, Vassilis Kitidis of the PML reviews methane biogeochemistry in the Arctic Ocean with particular reference to methane hydrates and permafrost. The quest for large-scale clean energy is a global concern and this book makes an important contribution to the current debate on how best to utilise the worlds huge remaining fossil-fuel resources without adding an unmanageable burden of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The book will be of value not only to those scientists, engineers, industrialists and policy makers immediately involved with energy supply and large-scale manufacturing, but also more widely to all concerned with major environmental issues such as climate change, ocean acidication, deforestation and the socio-economic and political choices needing to be made in this fast-moving eld. Ronald E Hester Roy M Harrison