Recycling Energy

Energy recycling is a relatively new process that recovers energy from heat that previously has just drifted away into the air such as the steam that escapes from the cooling towers at a generating station.

According to Tom Casten, who is chairman of Recycled Energy Development, a company that works to capture waste heat from industrial clients and uses it to produce electricity, two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost in the process, mostly as waste heat.

"Recent EPA and DOE studies suggest U.S. industries waste enough heat to generate an estimated 200,000 megawatts of power — nearly 20 percent of what this nation uses. That's enough electricity to replace up to 400 coal-fired power plants." (1)

At the big European-owned ArcelorMittal steel mill in East Chicago, IN, energy recycling creates about half of the electricity it uses each day.

In northern Europe energy recycling is much more common than it is here in the US with some countries generating 35% or more of their electricity this way. The US generates about 8% of it's power this way according to the DOE.

The EPA established the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Partnership in 2001 to encourage cost-effective CHP projects in the United States. In the years since, the CHP Partnership has helped install more than 335 CHP projects, representing 4,450 megawatts (MW) of capacity resulting in emissions reductions equivalent to removing 2 million cars from the highways. (2)

Image details: Electrical Wires Stretching In Front Of Polluting Smoke Towers served by picapp.com
Sources:
(1) NPR: 'Recycling' Energy Seen Saving Companies Money
(2) EPA Combined Heat and Power Partnership
(3) US Department of Energy

Texas Leads in Carbon Emissions

Texas leads in carbon emissions - MSNBC.com

Texas, the leader in emitting ... greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas’ population.

The largest portion of U.S. greenhouse gases are the result of emissions from generating electricity, almost 40 percent. Close behind are transportation emissions, source of about one-third of U.S. production of carbon dioxide.

On a per-person basis, Wyoming generates more carbon dioxide than any other state: 138 tons of it a year. Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person, less than 23,000 pounds a year.

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Carbon Footprint

What is your carbon footprint?

Carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide or CO2 emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels, the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced.

Primary and Secondary Footprints

The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use. (Carbon Footprint)

Carbon Offsetting

Each of our everyday actions, such as driving our cars, heating and cooling our homes, even cooking our food, consume energy and produce carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon offsetting is a way of compensating for the emissions produced with an equivalent carbon dioxide saving elsewhere in the world.

Carbon offsetting involves two steps –

1. Calculate your own carbon footprint. There are many online calculators to help you do this (see below).
   
2. The second step involves buying carbon offset credits from emission reduction projects. Such projects will prevent or remove an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide somewhere else on the planet.

• Some Carbon Footprint Calculators - Carbon Footprint - BP - An Inconvenient Truth - Conservation International

• Other Links of Interest - The Carbon Footprint of a Burger - Ecological Footprint Quiz