Reducing fossil fuel emissions

There are many ways in which people around the world are attempting to reduce fossil fuel emissions in order to reduce possible impacts on our environment.

The transport industry

Petrol and diesel fuels, used in cars, buses and trucks, contribute considerably to pollution and the level of greenhouse gas emissions.

The following chart shows the increases in emissions as road transport has increased. It also predicts levels of emissions if this trend continues unchecked.

Reproduced with permission from the Australian Greenhouse office,
Department of the Environment and Heritage.

The emissions problem is being addressed from many different angles.

• Petrochemical researchers are investigating fuels that burn more efficiently and give out less pollution.
• Engineers are designing motors that burn fuel more efficiently.
• Alternative fuels that cause less pollution, like natural gas and solar, are being adapted for road transport purposes and researchers are seeking more affordable ways to introduce them widely.

Clean coal technologies

As coal is such an important energy resource around the world, many researchers are developing new technological innovations to reduce the environmental impacts of coal as a fuel.

Again, researchers have tackled the issues from a variety of angles. Clean coal technologies include:

• new combustion processes – like fluidised bed combustion and low-NOx burners – that remove pollutants, or prevent them from forming, while the coal burns
• new pollution control devices – like advanced scrubbers – that clean pollutants from flue gases before they exit a plant's smokestack
• conversion of coal into fuel forms that can be cleaned before being burned. For example, a clean coal plant may convert coal into a gas that has the same environmental characteristics as clean-burning natural gas.

Cogeneration

Cogeneration plants make use of heat that is a by-product of the electricity generation process.

Conventional electricity generators are driven by steam turbines and a large amount of the heat produced during the process is wasted. Cogeneration plants trap this heat and recycle it to adjacent buildings where it can be used for heating or other industrial processes.

Cogeneration systems predominantly use natural gas, which produces electricity with one-third of the greenhouse emissions of conventional coal-fired power stations.