Secondary Effects of Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

While climate change has lost some interest to the global economy, the United States and the World continue to move forward on advancing research and technologies to capture, sequester, or reuse the green house gas carbon dioxide. Capturing carbon dioxide from point sources such as power plants and cement kilns provides the secondary effect of reducing other regulated pollutants such as heavy metals, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and particulates. This paper evaluates several types of carbon capture technologies (pre and post combustion, and carbon recycling) currently under development and the secondary effect of reducing other regulated emissions. Evaluations are done by chemical and energy balances along with simulation models. It also evaluates how the other regulated emissions common found with carbon dioxide gas affect the overall carbon capture, sequestration, or reuse processes and what engineering process or process integration considerations are required to handle these affects. The secondary net effects of carbon capture, sequestration, or reuse will likely improving overall air quality and reduce healthcare cost. The new cost imposed by implementing carbon capture, sequestration, or reuse would have likely been required to meet new air emission regulations in the future.