Preface
This book, intended for non-specialists, graduate, and undergraduate students,
features the epic change in the attitude of policy-makers and industrialists toward
carbon dioxide, CO 2 , which is not anymore considered a waste but a resource. As a
matter of fact, nature, in its carbon cycle, cycles CO 2 at a rate of over 220 Gt of C
per year or over 800 Gt CO2 /y for making a myriad of energy-rich compounds, using
water as source of hydrogen and sun for powering the various processes. But nature
cannot buffer the 37 Gt CO2 /y emitted within anthropogenic activities.
The utilization of CO 2 as building block for chemicals and materials, and source
of carbon for fuels is a strategy we have beaten the drum for since early 1980s. So
far, there were not the conditions for its large-scale implementation. These days, the
need to shift from the linear to the circular economy and the exploitability of
perennial primary energy sources (sun, wind, hydro, and geothermal energies) have
brought to the attention of policy-makers and industrialists the great opportunity
offered by using carbon dioxide. The use of CO 2 avoids the extraction of fossil
natural resources and the transfer of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere,
which is considered responsible for climate change. Is CO 2 the protagonist of
climate change we are observing these days? Opinions about the real role of CO 2
are presented in this book: maybe it has a deuteragonist or even lower role. An
analysis is made of primary energy sources used today and of the perspective huge
change underway, with fossil-C expected to go down from actual 80.2% of share as
primary energy source to a possible 25% by 2040, the difference being covered by
perennial energies and renewable energy such as biomass.
The role of fossil-C in the actual energy system is analyzed (Chap. 1), completed
with the use of fossil-C in the chemical industry (Chap. 2). An analysis is made on
the impact of such use on the natural C-cycle and the increase of the natural
greenhouse effect (Chap. 3). The role of efficiency strategies in the production and
use of energy (electric, thermal, and mechanical) in our world and of renewable-C
(biomass) is discussed as a way to the reduction of the emission of CO 2 (Chap. 4).
This key topic is followed by the analysis of the potential of alternative C-free energy
sources (Chap. 5) and of the capture and storage technology for CO 2 -sequestration
underground or into long time span materials, such as inorganic carbonates (Chap. 6
). The electronic and physical properties of CO 2 are presented in Chap. 7, that is, the
prologue to the use of CO 2 as technical fluid (Chap. 8) or as building block for
ix
This book, intended for non-specialists, graduate, and undergraduate students,
features the epic change in the attitude of policy-makers and industrialists toward
carbon dioxide, CO 2 , which is not anymore considered a waste but a resource. As a
matter of fact, nature, in its carbon cycle, cycles CO 2 at a rate of over 220 Gt of C
per year or over 800 Gt CO2 /y for making a myriad of energy-rich compounds, using
water as source of hydrogen and sun for powering the various processes. But nature
cannot buffer the 37 Gt CO2 /y emitted within anthropogenic activities.
The utilization of CO 2 as building block for chemicals and materials, and source
of carbon for fuels is a strategy we have beaten the drum for since early 1980s. So
far, there were not the conditions for its large-scale implementation. These days, the
need to shift from the linear to the circular economy and the exploitability of
perennial primary energy sources (sun, wind, hydro, and geothermal energies) have
brought to the attention of policy-makers and industrialists the great opportunity
offered by using carbon dioxide. The use of CO 2 avoids the extraction of fossil
natural resources and the transfer of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere,
which is considered responsible for climate change. Is CO 2 the protagonist of
climate change we are observing these days? Opinions about the real role of CO 2
are presented in this book: maybe it has a deuteragonist or even lower role. An
analysis is made of primary energy sources used today and of the perspective huge
change underway, with fossil-C expected to go down from actual 80.2% of share as
primary energy source to a possible 25% by 2040, the difference being covered by
perennial energies and renewable energy such as biomass.
The role of fossil-C in the actual energy system is analyzed (Chap. 1), completed
with the use of fossil-C in the chemical industry (Chap. 2). An analysis is made on
the impact of such use on the natural C-cycle and the increase of the natural
greenhouse effect (Chap. 3). The role of efficiency strategies in the production and
use of energy (electric, thermal, and mechanical) in our world and of renewable-C
(biomass) is discussed as a way to the reduction of the emission of CO 2 (Chap. 4).
This key topic is followed by the analysis of the potential of alternative C-free energy
sources (Chap. 5) and of the capture and storage technology for CO 2 -sequestration
underground or into long time span materials, such as inorganic carbonates (Chap. 6
). The electronic and physical properties of CO 2 are presented in Chap. 7, that is, the
prologue to the use of CO 2 as technical fluid (Chap. 8) or as building block for
ix