本文转自《Phys.org》发表的题为“Coal plant offsets with carbon capture means covering 89 percent of the US in forests”的报道。

日期：2018.09.07

来源： Michigan Technological University

原文链接：https://phys.org/news/2018-09-coal-offsets-carbon-capture-percent.html

Researchers found that using bio-sequestration to capture carbon produced by US coal-fired plants even after carbon capture and storage would require using 62 percent of the nation's arable land for that process, or 89 percent of all US land with average forest cover. Credit: Rylie Kostreva, Michigan Tech

研究人员发现，即使在碳捕获和储存之后，使用生物封存来捕获美国燃煤电厂生产的碳也需要使用该国62％的可耕地，或占美国所有土地平均覆盖率的89％。 图片来源：密歇根理工大学Rylie Kostreva

Researchers found that using bio-sequestration to capture carbon produced by US coal-fired plants even after carbon capture and storage would require using 62 percent of the nation's arable land for that process, or 89 percent of all US land with average forest cover. In comparison, offsetting the amount of carbon produced by manufacturing solar panels is 13 times less land, making it a far more viable option.

研究人员发现，即使在碳捕获和储存之后，使用生物封存来捕获美国燃煤电厂生产的碳也需要使用全国62％的可耕地，或占美国所有土地平均覆盖率的89％。 相比之下，生产太阳能电池板产生的碳排放量要少13倍，这使它成为一个更可行的选择。

While demand for energy isn't dropping, alarms raised by burning fossil fuels in order to get that energy are getting louder. Often suggested solutions to cancel out the effects of the carbon dumped into our atmosphere through carbon capture and storage or bio-sequestration. This zero-emission energy uses technical means as well as plants to take in carbon emissions and store it. Another route is to use solar photovoltaics to convert sunlight directly into electricity and only sequester the carbon emissions from the production of solar cells.

虽然对能源的需求没有下降，但通过燃烧化石燃料以获得能量而引发的警报正在变得越来越大。 通常建议的解决方案是通过碳捕获和储存或生物封存来消除倾倒到大气中的碳的影响。 这种零排放能源使用技术手段和工厂来吸收碳排放并储存。 另一种途径是利用太阳能光伏发电将太阳光直接转化为电能，并且仅隔离太阳能电池生产中的碳排放。

The Giving Tree Won't Give Enough for Carbon Neutral Coal

捐赠树木不足以满足碳中和煤的需求

Zero-emission energy has been offered as a way to offset the carbon dioxide production while still maintaining coal's electricity generation. That's done through carbon capture and storage in saline aquifers or using enhanced oil recovery as well as bio-sequestration by planting trees and other plants to suck up and store carbon.

提供零排放能源是抵消二氧化碳生产的一种方式，同时仍然保持煤炭的发电量。 这是通过在盐水层进行碳捕获和储存，以及在油气田中进行CO2强化驱油提高石油采收率，或者通过种植树木和其他植物来吸收和储存碳。

In a new study published in Scientific Reports, a Nature publication, Michigan Technological University researchers looked at how much land would be required to offset greenhouse gases created by traditional coal-fired plants or coal-fired plants with carbon sequestration and then neutralizing the remaining carbon pollution with bio-sequestration. Then it compared these routes to how much bio-sequestration would be required to offset greenhouse gases produced when making solar panels.

在《自然》(Nature)杂志《科学报告》(Scientific Reports)上发表的一项新研究中，密歇根理工大学的研究人员研究了需要多少土地来抵消传统燃煤电厂或燃煤电厂产生的碳封存所产生的温室气体，然后用生物封存法消除剩余的碳污染。 然后，它将这些路径与生产太阳能电池板时产生的温室气体所需的生物封存量进行了比较。

For the first time, researchers have shown that there is no comparison. It's not even close. Coal-fired power plants require 13 times more land to be carbon neutral than the manufacturing of solar panels. We'd have to use a minimum of 62 percent of U.S. land covered by optimal crops or cover 89 percent of the U.S. with average forests to do it.

研究人员首次表明没有可比性。 它甚至都不是很接近。 与太阳能电池板的制造相比，燃煤电厂要求碳中性的土地数量增加13倍。 我们必须使用至少62％的美国土地覆盖最佳作物，或覆盖89％的美国平均森林。

"We know that climate change is a reality, but we don't want to live like cavemen," says Joshua Pearce, professor of material sciences and electrical engineering at Michigan Tech. "We need a method to make carbon neutral electricity. It just makes no sense whatsoever to use coal when you have solar available, especially with this data."

“我们知道气候变化已成为现实，但我们不希望像穴居人一样生活，”密歇根理工大学材料科学与电气工程教授Joshua Pearce说。 “我们需要一种方法来制造碳中性电。当你有太阳能时，使用煤是没有意义的，特别是有了这些数据。”

Coal-fired power plants require 13 times more land to be carbon neutral than the manufacturing of solar panels. Credit: Vassilissa Semouchkina, Michigan Tech

与太阳能电池板的制造相比，燃煤电厂要求碳中性的土地数量增加13倍。 图片来源：Vassilissa Semouchkina，密歇根理工大学

Coal-Fired Power Plant Emissions are Too Big to Solve

燃煤电厂的排放量太大而无法解决

Researchers drew these conclusions from over 100 different data sources to compare energy, greenhouse gas emissions and land transformation needed to carbon neutralize each type of energy technology.

研究人员从100多种不同的数据来源中得出这些结论，以比较碳中和时每种能源技术所需的能源，温室气体排放和土地转化。

A one-gigawatt coal-fired plant would require a new forest larger than the state of Maryland for all of its carbon emissions to be neutralized.

一个1千兆瓦的燃煤电厂需要一个比马里兰州更大的新森林才能消除其所有的碳排放。

They found that applying the best-case bio-sequestration for all the greenhouse gases produced by coal-fired power plants would mean using 62 percent of the nation's arable land for that process, or 89 percent of all U.S. land with average forest cover. A one-gigawatt coal-fired plant would require a new forest larger than the state of Maryland for all of its carbon to be neutralized without CCS.

他们发现，对燃煤电厂产生的所有温室气体进行最理想的生物封存，意味着将该国62％的可耕地用于该过程，或占美国所有土地平均森林覆盖率的89％。一个1千兆瓦的燃煤电厂需要一个比马里兰州更大的新森林才能在没有CCS的情况下中和所有碳。

In comparison, solar cells require 13 times less land to become carbon neutral and five times less than the best-case coal scenario.

相比之下，太阳能电池需要的土地比碳中和所需的土地少13倍，比最好情况下的煤炭少5倍。

"If your goal is to make electricity without introducing any carbon into the atmosphere, you should absolutely not do a coal plant," he says. Not only is it not realistic to capture all the carbon dioxide they release, but burning coal also puts sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide and particulates in the air. They cause air population, which is already estimated to cause 52,000 premature deaths per year

“如果你的目标是在不向大气中引入任何碳的情况下制造电力，那么你绝对不应该选择煤电厂，”他说。捕获它们释放的所有二氧化碳不仅不现实，而且燃烧煤还会将二氧化硫和一氧化二氮以及颗粒物排放到空气中。它们导致空气流入，据估计每年造成52,000人过早死亡。

Solar is a Better Zero-Emission Option—and Can Be Improved Too

太阳能是一种更好的零排放选择 - 并且可以改进

Pearce says that, in these calculations, he and his team were generous to coal-fired power plants in how efficient carbon capture and storage could ideally be when scaled up. They also did not consider new ways that solar farms are being used to make them even more efficient, like using higher efficiency black silicon solar cells, putting mirrors in between rows of panels so that the light that falls between them would also be absorbed, or planting crops between rows (agrivoltaics) to get the most use out of the land dedicated to solar panels that they can.

Pearce说，在这些计算中，他和他的团队对燃煤发电厂非常慷慨，以便在扩大规模时有效地利用碳捕获和储存。 他们也没有考虑使用太阳能农场的新方法来提高效率，例如使用效率更高的黑硅太阳能电池，在各排面板之间放置镜子，以便它们之间的光也会被吸收，或者 在行（agrivoltaics）之间种植作物，以最大限度地利用他们可以用于太阳能电池板的土地。

Resources should be put towards improving the efficiency of solar panels and of solar farms, he says, not carbon capture of fossil fuel-powered plants in an attempt to become zero-emission energy, not when this data shows it isn't realistic to make big difference in protecting our changing climate.

他说，资源应该用于提高太阳能电池板和太阳能发电场的效率，而不是试图成为零排放能源的化石燃料发电厂的碳捕获，而不是在这些数据显示在保护我们不断变化的气候方面它是不现实的时候。