Air pollution resulting from the use of fossil fuels is discussed. Phenomena relating to the emission of CO2 such as the greenhouse effect and multiplier effect are explored. Particulate release is also discussed. The following recommendations are made for the elimination of fossil fuel combustion products in the United States: development of nuclear breeder reactors, use of solar energy systems, exploration of energy alternatives such as geothermal and fusion, and the substitution of coal for gas and oil use

Williams, J. R.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

22604
FINAL REPORT
NASA Grant NGR-11-002-166
COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF SOLAR, FISSION,
FUSION, AND FOSSIL ENERGY RESOURCES
PART V
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
J. R. Williams
Prepared for the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135
by the
Schools of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19740014491 2020-03-23T10:09:16+00:00Z
This is the 5th of a five
part report prepared for
the NASA Lewis Research
Center under NASA Grant
NGR-11-002-166. The Tech-
nical Officer for this
project was George Kaplan,
"Over periods of many millions of years plants covered the earth,
converting the energy of sunlight into living tissue, some of which became
buried in the depths of the earth to produce deposits of coal, oil, and
natural gas. During the past few decades Man has found many valuable uses
for these complex chemical substances, manufacturing from them plastics,
textiles, fertilizers, and the varied end products of the petrochemical
industry. Each decade sees increasing uses for these products. Coal, oil
and gas are non-renewable natural resources which will certainly be of
great value to future generations, as they are to ours.
However, Man has found another use for these valuable chemicals
from the earth, a use other than the creation of the products that add so
much to our standard of living. That is to burn them. To burn them in
huge and ever increasing quantities to power the machines of society and
provide heat. They are being burned at such an incredible rate that in a
few short decades the world reserves of natural gas may be depleted,
decades later the oil will be gone, and in a century or two the world will
also be without coal. Undoubtably sussessive generations of humanity
after that time will decry the excesses of the present generation in
selfishly destroying these valuable resources without regard for the welfare
of their decendents.
The rapid depletion of non-renewable fossil resources need not
continue, since it is now or soon will be technically and economically
feasible to supply all of Man's energy needs from the most abundant energy
source of all, the sun. Sunlight is not only inexhaustible, but it is the
only energy source which is completely non-polluting. The land area required
to provide all our energy=is; a small fraction of the land area required to
produce our food; and the land best suited for collecting solar energy,
rooftops and deserts, is the land least suited for other purposes. It is
time for the United States, which led the world in the development of
atomic energy and in putting men on the moon, to mount an equally massive
effort to usher in the Solar Age. With such a massive effort our country
can offer the world the technology for the economical utilization of solar
energy in all its varied forms - photovoltaic, direct solar-thermal,
renewable fuels, ocean thermal, and winds. Then we can conserve our valuable
non-renewable fossil resources for many future generations to enjoy, and
we can all live in a world of abundant energy without pollution".
Nuclear energy will be increasingly important in the coming decades,
and should also be pursued with utmost emphasis placed on safety and
environmental concerns. Waste heat can be used productively in northern
climates. Possibilities for disposing radwaste in space away from the earth
should be pursued. Nuclear reactors can provide power in large chunks,
and can propel large ships and submarines. Nuclear and solar together,
and if necessary solar alone, can eventually supply all of Man's energy
needs. • ,
The adverse environmental impacts of continued fossil fuel combustion
are well known, and may be even more far reaching than currently thought.
The air pollution choaking many of our cities is almost entirely from the
combustion of fossil fuel. Coal mining is a hazardous, unhealthy occupation
and many people have lost their lives extracting these materials from the
depths of the earth. Oil spills have contaminated beaches and killed
wildlife. Several oil spills, releasing between 10,000 tons and 100,000 tons
of oil, have had a strongly adverse effect on the ecology of the area where
they occurred. Oil is toxic to many marine organisms. Worldwide, about a
million tons per year is spilled from various oil operations, and in the
U. S. alone another million tons of waste motor oil is dumped annually.
Except for obvious localized effects when major spills occur, it has not
known what the long term effect of this continued large scale dumping will
be. The author once had his home destroyed by the rupture of a tank of
f
butane gas. But in addition to these known safety and environmental
hazards, the combustion of fossil fuels is causing a increase in the carbon
dioxide content of the atmosphere, which could cause major worldwide
climatological changes over the next few decades.
Carbon dioxide is normally not considered a pollutant since it occurs
naturally in the earth's atmosphere. Huge quantities of C02 have been
released into the atmosphere during the past few decades from the combustion
of fossil fuels. It is the only combustion product whose increase in the
atmosphere has been documented on a worldwide basis. Precise measurements
by C D Keeling of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography showed that the
carbon dioxide content increased by six parts per million between 1958 and
1968. It appears that, since 1860, when fossil fuels began to be burned in
large amounts, the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has in-
creased from 290 ppm to about 320 ppm. Reasonable projections indicate an
2
increase to about 400 ppm by the turn of the century and 540 ppm by 2020..
The concentration could rise as high as 1500 ppm during the next century.
Carbon dioxide is not expected to have any direct toxic effects on
man or animal life at these levels, although no long-term studies have
been conducted. Many types of plants have been found to grow better with.
increased levels of carbon dioxide in greenhouses. The major effect of the
COo increase will be on the thermal balance of the earth.
C02 has strong absorption levels in the infrared region between 12
and 18 microns. This is the spectral region where most of the thermal energy
radiating from the earth into space is concentrated. The increased C0£ in-
creases atmospheric absorption of this radiation, and it is reradiated at
the much lower temperature of the upper atmosphere. This is known as the
"greenhouse effect". CC>2 does not affect the solar energy received by
the earth, but reduces energy radiated from the earth, so the result is an
increase of the earth's temperature. Several investigators have calculated
what this temperature rise would be. In 1956 Plass calculated the effect
of doubling the CO 2 content of the atmosphere and predicted a rise of 3.6°C.
More recently, Manabe and Wetherald performed more extensive calculations
and predicted that an increase in CC>2 content from 300 to 600 ppm would
increase the average surface temperature by 2.36°C, assuming fixed relative
humidity and average cloudiness. A worldwide temperature increase of this
magnitude would be expected to cause considerable melting of the polar ice
caps, resulting in a 100 to 200 foot rise in the level of the oceans. This
would cause most coastal cities to be flooded.
There is also some concern about what is called the multiplier effect.
The oceans contain 60 times as much C0? as the atmosphere, and this C02 is
in equilibrium with the atmosphere at the present temperature of the oceans.
If doubling of the atmospheric C0£ causes a warming trend which results in an
increase of the temperature of the oceans, then the solubility of CQ2 in the
oceans is reduced. Thus, warming of the oceans could cause large additional
amounts of C02 to be released, causing the temperature to increase still
further.
The problem of predicting the effects of energy production on the
thermal balance of the earth is complicated even further, due to the effects
of particulates. There is some uncertainty at present as to whether
particulates released into the atmosphere tend to increase or decrease the
temperature of the earth, but most researchers believe that particulates
tend to lower the earth's temperature by scattering sunlight back into space.
A
Barrett et al. used an estimate of 4 million tons for particulates in the
atmosphere and calculated the global mean temperature to be 0.8°C below what
it would be in the absence of any particles. Doubling the particulate
loading would result in a further decrease of 1°C. Thus, if aerosol and CC>2
concentrations were to increase at the same rate, one might expect a net
warming trend. If the aerosol doubling time is much shorter than that for
C02, a cooling trend could result. The effects of high altitude particulate
emissions by jet aircraft introduce additional uncertainty, since their effects
are difficult to take into account.
Thus, the air pollution resulting from energy production has a wide
variety of effects on man and on his environment. Techniques are being
developed and applied for reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, the nitrogen
oxides, particulates, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. The release of
vast quantities of CC^ into the atmosphere will continue unabated as long as
fossil fuels are burned for large scale energy generation.
In view of these and other considerations, it is recommended that"
the United States establish the goal of eliminating the combustion of fossil
fuels in this century. In order to achieve this goal, while providing
abundant supplies of energy to the people of this country, the following
actions should be taken.
1. Accelerate the construction of nuclear reactors and the development
and deployment of nuclear breeder reactors without sacrificing
safety. Each vender should be allowed to market several AEC-approved
standardized plants which can be erected on a site within 4 years
of contract initiation.
2. Launch a crash program to develop and install solar energy systems
with a funding level of about half that devoted to nuclear energy.
Recommendations for the required R&D are given in Part I of this report.
3. Pursue all other energy alternatives, such as geothermal and fusion,
at appropriate funding levels.
4. For the immediate energy crisis coal must be substituted for gas
and oil whenever possible. Power plants should burn coal and,
as an interim measure, use tall stacks for 862 control.
If these actions are taken, we can have all the energy we need, we
can become energetically self-sufficient, and we can conserve our valuable
non-renewable fossil resources for many future generations to enjoy.
REFERENCES
1. Williams, J. Richard, Solar Energy Technology and Applications,
Ann Arbor Science Publishers, Inc., May 1974.
2. H. F. Finger, "Human Energy Production as a Process in the
Biosphere", Scientific American. 223, No. 3, p. 175-90, Sept. 1970,
3. G. N. Plass, "The Influence of the 15 Micron Carbon Dioxide Band
on the Atmospheric Cooling Rate", Quarterly Journal of the Royal
Meteorological Society, J52, p.. 310-324, 1956.
4. E. W. Barrett, R. F. Pueschel, H. K. Weickmann, and P. M. Kuhn,
"Inadvertent Modification of Weather and Climate by Atmospheric
Pollutants", Environmental Science Services Administration
Technical Report No. ERL 185-APCL 15, September 1970.
5. Williams, J. R., Justus, C. G., and Collom, R. H., "The Georgia
Tall Stack Standard and the Energy Crisis", Journal of the
Pollution Control Association, May, 1974.


Comparative evaluation of solar, fission, fusion, and fossil energy resources. Part 5: Conclusions and recomendations

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