IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v8y2018i7d10.1038_s41558-018-0203-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The global potential for converting renewable electricity to negative-CO2-emissions hydrogen

Author

Listed:
  • Greg H. Rau

    (University of California Santa Cruz)

  • Heather D. Willauer

    (US Naval Research Laboratory)

  • Zhiyong Jason Ren

    (University of Colorado Boulder
    Princeton University
    Princeton University)

Abstract

The IPCC has assigned a critical role to negative-CO2-emissions energy in meeting energy and climate goals by the end of the century, with biomass energy plus carbon capture and storage (BECCS) prominently featured. We estimate that methods of combining saline water electrolysis with mineral weathering powered by any source of non-fossil fuel-derived electricity could, on average, increase energy generation and CO2 removal by >50 times relative to BECCS, at equivalent or lower cost. This electrogeochemistry avoids the need to produce and store concentrated CO2, instead converting and sequestering CO2 as already abundant, long-lived forms of ocean alkalinity. Such energy systems could also greatly reduce land and freshwater impacts relative to BECCS, and could also be integrated into conventional energy production to reduce its carbon footprint. Further research is needed to better understand the full range and capacity of the world’s negative-emissions options.

Suggested Citation

  • Greg H. Rau & Heather D. Willauer & Zhiyong Jason Ren, 2018. "The global potential for converting renewable electricity to negative-CO2-emissions hydrogen," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(7), pages 621-625, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-018-0203-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0203-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0203-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-018-0203-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiao, Jin & Li, Guohao & Xie, Ling & Wang, Shouyang & Yu, Lean, 2021. "Decarbonizing China's power sector by 2030 with consideration of technological progress and cross-regional power transmission," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Sarah Gore & Phil Renforth & Rupert Perkins, 2019. "The potential environmental response to increasing ocean alkalinity for negative emissions," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 1191-1211, October.
    3. Li, Yanxue & Gao, Weijun & Ruan, Yingjun, 2019. "Potential and sensitivity analysis of long-term hydrogen production in resolving surplus RES generation—a case study in Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 1164-1172.
    4. Pedro Macedo & Mara Madaleno, 2022. "Global Temperature and Carbon Dioxide Nexus: Evidence from a Maximum Entropy Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Gunther Glenk & Stefan Reichelstein, 2022. "Reversible Power-to-Gas systems for energy conversion and storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Rau, Greg H. & Baird, Jim R., 2018. "Negative-CO2-emissions ocean thermal energy conversion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 265-272.
    7. Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi & Mohammad Dehghani Madvar & Milad Sadeghzadeh & Mohammad Hossein Rezaei & Manuel Herrera & Shahaboddin Shamshirband, 2019. "Current Status Investigation and Predicting Carbon Dioxide Emission in Latin American Countries by Connectionist Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, May.
    8. EdwardA. Parson & HollyJ. Buck, 2020. "Large-Scale Carbon Dioxide Removal: The Problem ofPhasedown," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(3), pages 70-92, August.
    9. Capros, Pantelis & Zazias, Georgios & Evangelopoulou, Stavroula & Kannavou, Maria & Fotiou, Theofano & Siskos, Pelopidas & De Vita, Alessia & Sakellaris, Konstantinos, 2019. "Energy-system modelling of the EU strategy towards climate-neutrality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-018-0203-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.